Hogwarts Revisited
by War292004
Summary: The final year of schooling has come for Matt and Emily and Seaside, as well as the other American Wizarding Academies, try to return to some semblance of normalcy. Yet with all that's going on in the British Isles, things can't stay peaceful for long...
1. Chapter 1

**DISCLAIMER: **Here it is, folks. The finale of my Harry Potter fan fictions. I doubt it'll be as long as the first two, but that's fine by me; I need to start focusing on other projects anyway. The usual disclaimers are in effect: all Harry Potter-related characters, ideas, settings, etc. are all property of Her Holiness J. K. Rowling. I am making no money off this, and all credit goes to her, etc. etc.

**Author's Note:** Due to computer crashes and some other things, a lot of classes and some professor names have switched between RtH:SS, including an all-new class schedule. Also, Emily and Matt will be the only ones to remain through all three sagas (mostly because I don't want to jinx another friendship by adding a third person!) There may be various crossover references to other games and/or stories in the process. I think that takes care of all of it, so enjoy the grand finale!

**HOGWARTS REVISITED**

Chapter One: Change

"Are you almost ready? We're leaving in a few minutes," Ramirez said, making Matt jump.

"Sorry, Ramirez," said Matt, who had been lost in his own world as he packed a small bag of clothes and other necessities.

It had been just over two weeks since the Salem Attack. All the Wizarding Schools in America had been on high alert, and, after another week of disrupted classes and worried students, the American Wizarding Authority had stepped in and decreed that all schools would be closed down on the weekend to have their defenses inspected and strengthened. All students were required to be off campus at that time. Since Matt and Emily didn't want to return to their homes (especially if the attackers were really targeting them), they were offered a place to stay at the Tavoularius' home.

Matt double-checked his bag one more time. He had enough clothes for the weekend, all the textbooks he needed to complete his homework, and a few other things here and there. He double-checked his wands; his normal Phoenix Feather wand and his Arcadian Wand tucked safely away in the interior of his Ravenclaw Robe. He double-checked his pet hummingbird, Cyclone, who was fast sleep in one of his front pockets. Once sure that everything was secure, he picked up his bag and followed Ramierz out the door.

"Emily, you ready?" asked Matt in the silent dorm.

Emily, who had been leaning against the wall opposite the boys' dorm, merely stared at him, amazed that he'd ask such a question when she was standing there with her stuff in her hands and her mini-golden eagle perched on her arm. The three left the dorm and walked across the silent grounds of Seaside. They entered the main building and met with Dr. Tavoularius, who was just finishing up the final preparations to lock the school down until the AWA could come.

"We about finished?" she asked as the last silvery wisps of magic left her wand and disappeared into the ceiling, "Alright. Let's get out of here."

She walked to one of the huge fireplaces in the Dining Hall and lit a fire. She took out a small pouch from her pocket, sprinkled some dust into the fire, and the Emerald Flames roared forth. She took a step towards the grate and said, loudly and clearly, "Tavoularius Cottage!" Ramirez disappeared next, and then, with one final glance around the Dining Hall, Matt and Emily followed. After spinning around and around for about twenty seconds, the two stepped dizzily into the living room of a large, bright, beautiful home.

"Welcome to our home," said Dr. Tavoularius, picking some soot off of her shopping bag.

The house was very well-maintained and was shockingly Muggle-esque. As famous as Dr. Tavoularius was in the Wizarding world, it was a shock for Matt and Emily to see such ordinary things in their house: a flat screen television, a dishwasher, two expensive-looking computers, and bookcases full of works of literature by Muggle authors. No signs of anything magical were around, not even any moving pictures.

"You're probably wondering why our house seems so un-magical," said Ramirez with one of his flashy, trademark grins. "Well… aside from Katrina, all of our neighbors are Muggles. We can't very well leave our cauldrons and broomsticks lying around when some kid could come in at any time and see it, right?"

"I suppose not," said Matt, who did notice that a couple of the pictures on the mantle and walls were fidgeting.

"This is very nice, I like the open floor plan," said Emily, walking around and praising the home.

The living room seemed to be almost in the direct center of the house. The vaulted ceilings made the room look even more enormous, and off to the left there was an opening right into the huge kitchen. Stairs off to the right led up to the second floor, which had an open area that looked down into the living room itself. Matt and Emily turned and were met with a wall of wide, clean windows with an amazing view of rolling hills behind the home, with a lake in the far distance.

"It's not terribly crowded," said Ramirez, "But this street has had more houses in the past. The Sanders' next door are the only ones who know about our magic powers."

"Really?" said Matt, "It must be tough keeping it a secret from so many Muggles…"

Ramirez chuckled, "Oh, I've never had a problem with it. It's my younger siblings we really have to watch out for, especially the twins…"

Matt and Emily hadn't known that Ramirez had more siblings. They had assumed his Mohawk-wearing brother Xavier was the only one. However it soon became apparent Ramirez had sister of about ten and toddler twin brothers. And from what Ramirez and his mother told them, they were quite a handful to keep tabs on.

"Well, you know how tykes can't really control their powers, right?" explained Ramirez as they sat at the breakfast nook. "Romulus, the older twin, he started waving his arms one day and suddenly all these kids were just floating around the playroom. We're lucky there happened to be a witch among the caregivers, she managed to get them down without anyone noticing. Except for this one girl, who they couldn't find for a while until they realized she was sitting on top of the huge fish tank, pouring about three weeks' worth of food into the tank for them."

They spent the rest of the afternoon on small talk, waiting for the rest of the family to get home. Xavier came back first, but quickly disappeared to his room where the sounds of drums soon erupted. The younger sister, Isis, came home next. She attended a different West Coast school (since Seaside was only for older students) so she, too, was home for the unofficial break. But, like Xavier, she was only around for a few minutes before she got a call and left to have a sleepover with one of her old Muggle pals. Finally, just as Dr. Tavoularius was finishing up dinner, her husband and the twins returned from their days out.

Kratos Tavoularius was a big man to begin with, tall and muscled, but he became even more scary with the addition to the bloody, shark-tooth earrings he wore. His hair was tied into a ponytail, and his scruffy beard and goatee made him even more intimidating. Yet his eyes shown with laughter, mischief, and kindness, all at the same time, and his voice was surprisingly pleasant, usually jovial but also booming when he was especially happy about something.

The twins, Romulus and Remus, had identical faces and body sizes. The only way Matt and Emily could tell them apart was by their hairstyles: Romulus had short, straight hair while Remus' was a little longer and shaggier. But both were wide-eyed, explorative, and easily amused. They delighted in chasing the family dog around, and the dog seemed to have long ago come to terms with this because he didn't fight back when they grabbed onto his tail to go for a ride.

"How was it today?" asked Dr. Tavoularius kindly, while her husband poured himself a drink.

"An absolute nightmare, of course," replied Mr. Tavoularius. "Children lost on the way home, parents confused about the whole process of shutting down the schools, the normal terrified people freaking out over the smallest things…"

"Oh good," chimed in Ramirez. "Good thing even wizard Americans are as terrified as our Muggle counterparts."

"You know why?" said Dr. Tavoularius as she began to fix dinner. "The media the worst part about it. The wizarding press in America can be absolutely ridiculous and blow things completely out of proportion. And that's exactly what happened here."

Matt and Emily chuckled darkly, aware of the effects the wizarding press can have on the world. Back when they were at Hogwarts, the Daily Prophet was even worse about that sort of thing, twisting the beliefs and thoughts of the wizarding public to whatever agenda they'd wanted them to have. They vaguely wondered what was going on now.

"Well, no use worrying about it now," said Mr. Tavoularius, picking up Romulus and Remus as they tried to sprint by after the dog. "What say we go enjoy the last of the warm weather outside before dinner?"

Matt, Emily, and the Tavoulariuses spent a pleasant evening in their expansive backyard, swimming, watching the sun set over the lake, and chasing the twins who were still chasing the poor dog. After a delicious meal, everyone except Matt, Emily, and Ramirez went to bed, exhausted and facing a load of work the next day. The other three, however, sat on the deck as the stars began to twinkle overhead, each silent and thinking.

"You're still blaming yourselves for the attack, aren't you?" Ramirez said after a few minutes.

Matt and Emily glanced over to him, knowing they'd been caught. Ramirez was no fool; in fact, he was pretty insightful for a teenage boy. They sighed and nodded. No matter how they looked at it, there was no way for them to get past the fact that they'd been the targets and, had they been at Salem, they may have been killed themselves.

"You can't keep beating yourselves up over that. It won't solve anything. And those who did die won't be able to rest in peace if you're still worried about it," said Ramirez, chastising them gently in the same way his mother always did.

"I know, I know," said Matt, sighing heavily. "It's just that I wish we could've been there to stop them or something. And I want to know for sure why they've decided to come after us when there's so much more they could be doing in England. What's so special about us, you know?"

"Yeah," agreed Emily. "It's like… we're not even a threat anymore. Voldy's after Harry over there, and you'd think people high up on his list of command would have more important things to do and people to kill than two random exchange students over in America. We've been forbidden to leave the country and we're only allowed limited contact with those in the Isles. What could we possibly do to stop their effort?"

"Maybe they're afraid of you drumming up international support to lay siege to the plans of that terrorist wizard… Voldy or whatever he's called," suggested Ramriez.

"I don't think so," said Emily, shaking her head thoughtfully. "If anyone was going to raise a fuss about what's going on in England they would have done so already. No world leader is going to be moved by the testimony of two underage wizards."

"I've always figured it was for revenge," said Matt, looking skyward, "I mean… like… we've seen them and fought against them. We helped their targets escape. It seems like a pride thing, more than anything else."

"I thought that, too… but I can't imagine Voldy would just let some of his cronies go waltzing off to America just because someone got a metaphorical hit to the crotch during one of the raids…" Emily muttered.

They fell silent again. Matt and Emily continued to go through scenarios in their head, trying to find a rhyme or reason to their being targeted. Ramirez made a couple more attempts to cheer them up or distract them, but it was clear he wasn't going to make any progress. So, he declared that they were allowed to obsess over it all they wanted that night but were forbidden to think of or speak of it again the rest of the weekend. With half smiles, Matt and Emily agreed to the proposition and turned in for the night.

After a decent night's sleep for a change, the two former Hogwarts students found it much easier to focus on other things, namely schoolwork. A few of their professors, despite the cancellations, had managed to assign them hefty amounts of homework, so for much of Saturday all the Seaside kids spent their time at the dining room table, churning out reading assignments, essays, and practicing small spells in the basement when needed.

With Mr. Tavoularius putting in overtime at the American Wizarding Authority, he wasn't seen until nearly dinnertime. Although it had kept him extremely busy, he was happy to report that much of the inspection and fortification of the schools was going well, and that over half were already finished. The only problem areas had been Salem and Lady Shandra, where AWA authority figures had been met with protests from both students and staff at both schools. Apparently families of the Salem victims were trying to stage a memorial service and had been rudely interrupted, while Lady Shandra had flown off the handle when she was interrupted during her morning meditations.

Dr. Tavoularius also has a large volume of issues to deal with. Besides twenty owls from concerned Seaside families to respond to, the acting-Principal was also kept in touch about the progress with the Seaside fortification, and the strange situation of losing ten of Seaside's teachers. Apparently a lot of wizards and witches around the country had suddenly retired or quit their jobs, and schools across the country were scrambling to fill posts.

"It's completely and utterly ridiculous," said Dr. Tavoularius at dinner. "Because of this, we're going to have to share teachers and rearrange all classes. It's a nightmare."

"Please tell me Ms. Goldstein is gone," Emily begged, thinking of her putrid Magical Theory professor.

"No such luck," said Dr. Tavoularius with a wry smile. "And before you ask, Matt, Heckendora is still your Potions teacher. But, we're fairly lucky that we didn't lose our really good staff members. Newburn, Baldwin, Graff, Briggs, Iseman, Laurenzi, Ching, Millard, and Hourton are all still here. But we lost our entire Transmigration department, half of Herbology, and all of Arithmancy, Divination, and Ancient Runes."

"Jesus Christ," said Ramirez, though recoiling when his mother shot him a severe look. "Sorry. But what are you going to do about those other classes?"

"Thankfully, the AWA provided a list of witches and wizards that are applying for the jobs, so I've got interviews lined up all day tomorrow," replied his mother, rubbing her temples. "And here I was hoping for a break this weekend…"

"I know how you can take some stress off of your workload," Ramirez said, patting his mother on the arm in a comforting manner. "Cancel all of your AP Abjuration homework so that you don't have to grade it when you get back."

"Oh, but I look forward to that," replied Dr. Tavoularius with a genuine grin. "I get no greater joy than marking up the papers of my cute little failure students!"

Sunday dawned bright and sunny, though it was easy to tell that the temperatures were starting to move from summer to fall level. Dr. Tavoularius left before dawn to begin her round of interviews and wasn't planning to be back until later that night. Mr. Tavoularius took the twins to get a check-up. Isis was once again out with her Muggle friends, and Xavier seemed to have stayed up all night and was sleeping. Matt, Emily, and Ramirez sat in the living room, finishing up a last-minute reading assignment from Dr. Ching.

"I love how you have to basically know how to be a doctor to do advanced Healing magic," said Matt, staring at a page that showed a bone mending itself over and over again.

"Yeah. I always thought you could just be like, 'Episkey!' and fix everything," said Emily, who was struggling through an extremely dull section about wound infections.

"And that's why you can't even get certified in Wizard First Aid without a rigorous training course," Ramirez said, his own book flopped uselessly on the coffee table in front of him.

The doorbell rang. Ramirez, Matt, and Emily both stood and looked at the front door. Two cloaked figures stood on the front porch, and the three inside instantly felt for their wands. Ramirez walked up to the door, and slowly unlocked and opened it.

"Can I help you?" asked Ramirez.

"Is this the Tavoularius residence?" asked one of the cloaked figures.

"It is. What do you need?" asked Ramirez, still blocking the door to the inside of his house, slowly withdrawing his wand behind his back.

"Oh good," said the first figure, the voice becoming much brighter and higher-pitched. "We've got the right place, Siyon."

"I told you," said the other with an impatient sign. "It said it on the mailbox, it's not a name you can easily mistake."

Matt, Emily, and Ramirez grinned and all walked to the entryway to greet the arrivals. The two cloaked figures pulled their hoods down and walked inside. Although both were about as short as Emily, one had deep, red hair tied into a bun, and the other had straight, jet-black hair that hung past the shoulder blades. The redhead had sharp, bright green eyes that could look straight through a person, while the other girl had dull, grey eyes that betrayed no emotion.

"Shailagh Hacker. How are you doing?" asked Matt, hugging his former schoolmate.

"Dandy. Had to help Lady Shandra avoid a lawsuit yesterday, though," replied Shailagh, her heavy Irish accent kicking in immediately.

"Mom said she'd flipped out about being interrupted," said Ramirez, shaking hands with the two. "I'm guessing this is the cousin you mentioned last trip?"

"Yes. This is Siyon," said Shailagh, her cheeks turning the faintest shade of pink at Ramirez's words.

"Hello," said Siyon in a flat, emotionless voice. She looked at all of them closely, as though taking in everything she could about them. Emily shivered and Matt felt a strange sensation inside his brain.

"What the…?" he said, rubbing his head.

"Siyon. No Legilimency on these guys," said Shailagh, sharply.

"Sorry. Couldn't help it," said Siyon, who proceeded to look around the house. "It's nice here."

"I apologize for my cousin," said Shaliagh, throwing a rough arm around her. "Her social skills are… lacking at best."

"Being around other people clouds the mind," said Siyon, throwing her cousin's arm off her shoulder irritably. "It's easier to control emotions when we're not around people, you know that."

"Yeah, yeah, Lady Shandra's said that a million and a half times," replied Shailagh with an eye roll. "You can have your peaceful solitude. I like having friends."

"So!" said Ramirez, clapping his hands together to break up a possible argument. "What brings you to our humble abode?"

"Ah, yes, of course," said Shailagh, as the group walked into the living room and sat down. "We won't be here too long. We just wanted to let you know what we've found out."

"You've been trying to break into the Death Eaters' minds, haven't you?" asked Matt. "What did you find out?"

"Still not that much," replied Shailagh, sighing and rubbing her temples. "The most we can figure out is that You-Know-Who is not at all pleased with the McGuire's little diversion over here. But there isn't all that much he can do about it, he's got his hands tied with other… situations."

"Yeah we figured that," said Emily, earning a sharp look from Siyon. Shailagh ignored her cousin and continued.

"But… there is a way I think we can get further information on them. I'll need Siyon's help for this, so I've pretty much told her everything. She's a lot better at Artifact Conjunction than I am," continued the Irish psychic.

"What's that?" asked Matt, intrigued.

"It's a very advanced Divining technique," said Siyon with more than a hint of haughtiness in her voice. "Those of us with the Gift can look at an object and, from it, get information about the owner. All objects that pass through our possession, no matter how long, are forever bound to us, and obtaining them allows us to trace the connection back to the original person. If the connection is strong enough--"

"--you can see right to where they are and what they're doing?!" finished Matt, excitedly.

"Yes," said Siyon coldly, annoyed at being cut off.

"That is absolutely amazing!" said Ramirez, his eyes shining, "Can anyone learn to do that?"

"No, even those who study Divination for years are rarely able to do it that well," said Shailagh, shaking her head. "I myself can only go so far. But Lady Shandra knows Siyon has a special gift for it, and that's probably why she's now part of her Top Five…"

"I'd like to think it's more than that," muttered Siyon.

"So you want us to get you something of the McGuires'?" asked Emily, cocking her head to the side, "What do we need, like hair and stuff or just any old object?"

"Anything will do. Do you have anything that we could use?" asked Shailagh.

Emily thought for a moment. Back when she had been in the 5th Year, she and Seth had been really good friends, so it's likely that he would have given her something, perhaps to borrow. But off the top of her head she couldn't think of anything.

"I bet he did give me something," said Emily, sighing at her failure to remember. "I just can't think of anything right now."

"What about a book? You guys always sat and read together, remember?" Matt suggested.

"Oh yeah…" said Emily, struggling to remember. "And… what did he get me for Christmas?"

"Hell if I remember," replied Matt. "Check your stuff when we get back to Seaside, we may have something there. Or at home, perhaps."

"I cleaned out everything from the Wizarding world at home, even my books," said Emily. "If I kept it, I'll have it now."

"Alright then," said Shailagh, standing. "We'll need to be leaving then…"

Upstairs, they heard a door creak open, and a few seconds later Xavier stumbled sleepily down the stairs. There was a small gasp and everyone noticed that Siyon was starring at the boy, clearly taken with his appearance. Her eyes were close to shining and she looked positively shocked to see him.

"You sure you don't want to stay for dinner?" asked Ramirez, frowning. "Mom would love to see you."

"No, it's alright, we'll stay!" Siyon exclaimed as Xavier continued his sleepy walk to the kitchen.

"I thought you wanted to get back quickly to finish your--" Shailagh began, but was cut off.

"No! No. It's… it's alright, I can finish that later tonight…" Siyon said, regaining her usual cool demeanor.

With eleven people crammed around the dinner table that night, things were loud and hectic at the Tavoularius household. The twins were extremely hyper from their doctor visit, and Mr. and Dr. Tavoularius were both exhausted from the respective duties all day. But they were very pleased to see Shailagh again and meet Siyon, who seemed to become even more introverted with the squealing toddlers and a barking dog added to the room.

"Well, I hired ten people today," said Dr. Tavoularius, proudly. "I got these sisters from New Jersey to take over Transmigration, a Saudi woman for Ancient Runes, a Japanese friend of the Yakako's for Arithmancy, and this winner from Texas with the name 'Sylver Moonwhisper' to take over Astrology."

"I think she's trying just a little too hard there…" said Emily, smirking.

"No kidding. We get those failures at Lady Shandra's all the time," said Shailagh between bites of mashed potatoes. "They last two weeks and then they spend most of their time sobbing in the dorms at the workload."

"Speaking of which," said Dr. Tavoularius, looking at the two newest arrivals. "Your excellent Headmaster has agreed to take over our Divination classes for the upper-level students."

"That's convenient," said Shailagh, shooting a glance at her Seaside friends.

"Yes, quite," muttered Siyon, her eyes straying to Xavier.

"Dr. T, will lessons resume as usual tomorrow?" Matt asked.

"Well… yes and no. Resume they will, but a lot of classes will be switched around. Everyone will get brand new schedules first thing in the morning," she explained.

"Please, please, please don't make me have any 8 AM classes," prayed Emily.

"You have several," said Dr. Tavoularius, with a maniacal grin and cackle.

With dinner finished, the Hacker cousins finally made their departure. But before they left, Shailagh had one more bit of advice for them.

"On Thursday night, when you guys have Summoning," said Shailagh as Siyon flagged down the Knight Limo. "Be sure you ask Dr. Hourton about Modern Magic. Be enthusiastic. He's going to play a key role in your successes in learning the new forms of magic and defeating the McGuires in the future."

"Alright. And I'll find something of Seth's if I can…" said Emily, nodding and hugging Shailagh. "See you… soon, hopefully."

"I'll be accompanying Lady Shandra on her visits to Seaside," said Shailagh with a mischievous grin, "The Top Five get lots of little perks. It's fantastic."

When they were gone, and the oldest and youngest members of the Tavoularius family had gone to bed, Matt, Emily, Ramirez, and Xavier spent one last night on the back porch, looking up at the moon and thinking about what was to come. With the prospect of normal classes returning (a luxury they hadn't had since the second week of August), the Americans prepared themselves for a lot of work. Add to it the prospect of sucking up to Lyle A. Hourton (who, by many accounts, was an eccentric fool), plus the now-constant threat of attack from the McGuires, and Matt and Emily decided their final formal year of schooling was going to be far from the normal excitement they'd come to expect from Hogwarts.


	2. Chapter 2

**Author's Note:**

**Blahhhh long delay, but here's Chapter Two. Good news is the whole story is planned out at this point so it's just a matter of getting my lazy ass to actually write the thing haha! Enjoy.**

Chapter Two: School Days

Breakfast was a very bizarre affair the next morning. New staff members and students milled about, unsure exactly where to go, and the regular Seasiders attempted to reconnect with friends and get the new schedules. The familiar faces from weeks previous had dropped and been replaced by newer ones from other parts of the country (a phenomenon Dr. Tavoularius described as 'Parents-Keeping-Kids-Closer-to-Home Syndrome'). Thankfully, things eventually settled down to the point that Dr. Tavoularius assumed her normal position at the podium and set off some firecrackers to get the last couple of new students to shut up.

"Now that we've got your attention, I'd like to explain how classes are going to work. Then you'll get your schedules. And after that we've got to get moving because we're already three weeks behind in classes and it's going to be up to you all to fix it. Now…"

Classes had been re-organized and grouped as either Monday/Wednesday, Tuesday/Thursday, or Friday-only classes of varying time periods. Some days were pure torture with up to six classes at a time, and some lucky students had a free day or two during the week. Emily and Matt both chuckled when they got their new schedules because both had only a Friday 8AM class, despite Dr. Tavoularius' jokes. But the 9:30 classes weren't much better, and Matt had Remedial Rune Studies with the newly-hired Dr. Ramziyah Elbaz. The class, to Matt, proved very difficult because he had only had basic, casual study of Runes up to this point and they were expected to not only translate but use their powers, too.

At one, the Magical Theory & History hour arrived for many Seniors. Matt, Katrina, Nayoko, Toshio, and Lillian entered Dr. Millard's class for their hour-and-a-half lecture while Emily, Ramirez, Teruhiko, and Xavier all went right next door to listen to Mrs. Goldstein's condescending whining and "teaching" for the duration of the class.

When they all reported for their AP Abjuration class at four, they were surprised by the sheer number of new students within. Dr. T also shared this delighted surprise, although her way of showing it was to assign double amounts of homework for the week in order to "decide who was serious about AP-level work and who was just floating along on test scores and laziness."

Thankfully AP Astronomy, which took place at 11 for the Seniors, was a lot more relaxing than the Abjuration terror, and Nicodemus Graff's calm, quiet voice during his explanations of the evolution of magical theory based on the stars washed over them without making them fall asleep. Then it was back to sleep to prepare for the next day, where Matt, once again, had to be awake hours before Emily.

Remedial Potions started at 9:30 sharp, and the class numbers had dwindled, which meant that Matt's mistakes were much more noticeable. Although he was extremely careful with his ingredients and technique, it seemed like nothing would come out perfectly right and Professor Heckendora seemed more than happy to crankily point out his errors without offering any advice whatsoever on how to fix it. By the end of class Matt found himself envisioning himself drowning the spiteful sack of fat in some Draught of the Living Dead, although with his luck it would set her on fire somehow and burn him.

Emily thoroughly enjoyed her AP Potions course right after lunch. As usual, the jovial Dr. Baldwin had nothing but praise for Emily's concoctions, and, as an added bonus for Emily, the knowledge of knowing that Nayoko was incredibly frustrated at her inability to best Emily. While Emily had a free period, Matt sat in Dr. Ching's AP Healing course, a highly demanding example of what Muggle Medical students probably experience. Then came Matt's free period, during which time Emily had AP Charming, a tough but relatively stress-free course taught by the young prodigy Dr. Newburn.

After an early, rushed dinner, Matt and Emily made their way with about twenty other students to Dr. Laurenzi's new classroom. Everyone felt their nerves weakening with each step; AP Transmutation was going to be absolute hell now that they were three weeks behind. Other students who had Laurenzi already told horror stories of her shrieking at them as though it was personally each and every one of their faults that classes had been delayed, before piling on enough work to stun even the brightest in the class.

Whether these had been exaggerations or Dr. Laurenzi had merely lost her will to shout was unclear, but she was remarkably calm for the AP Senior Transmutation class. It was almost anti-climactic; she did remind them that they had to hurry and catch up in order to fulfill the academic requirements, but she didn't assign too much extra work and she never raised her voice above the usual commanding-teacher-level.

Later that night, post dinner, AP Elemental Magic held its first meeting since school was reinstated. It was good to see that Professor Iseman remained in chipper spirits, despite the loss of one of his close friends, and he lead them through a short lecture on Exponentiation of Elemental magic, and a relaxing meditation as they slowly worked their way back into practice.

After a repeat of much of the same for Wednesday and Thursday, (save for Matt's rather taxing Divination lesson with Lady Shandra on Wednesday night), the new Friday Classes came about. The end of the week was actually the most demanding, class wise, because in order to ensure equal class times for all subjects, the periods were a staggering two and a half hours long. And Matt, Emily, and almost fifty others in their class started the long day at 8:00 AM sharp with AP Dueling, where Lieutenant Briggs barked his usual orders and warnings before setting them to work on some exercises that Matt and Emily, veterans of the DA, had no problem completing.

Their class times lined up perfectly for the day, however Matt had elected to take AP Transmigration, a new class, and Emily had been bullied by Dr. Tavoularius into continuing Academic Healing. With the restructuring, she prayed to every God and Goddess on the planet that she wouldn't get stuck with Dr. Ching, and the Heavens laughed hysterically apparently because the irate little Asian Mediwizard was there in all his glory as he ran them through triage simulations, one of the few teachers not taking the time to let them ease into the curriculum with the interruptions. As for Matt? He played Quidditch for two and a half hours while the amiable Youss sisters, ex-members of the Athens Wildcat Quidditch team, taught them some of their favorite techniques from the League (which thrilled Matt and Ramirez, of course, and even Lillian got into it; Nayoko fumed about the 'waste of time' and clearly voiced her intentions to drop the course if the next week wasn't 'worthwhile.')

Meeting at the Stables, a good number of Seaside Seniors sat through their first lesson in Magical Zoology, where both professors cautioned them that they would be working with extremely dangerous creatures that year (although Matt and Emily could only chuckle when they mentioned that they would only be touching on hippogriffs near the end of the semester due to their fierce nature). And once they were finished with that, they returned to their rooms to prepare for their meeting with Lyle A. Hourton.

"Shailagh said we have to be enthusiastic. But I can't imagine that means we fling up to his desk and start screeching about how much we love him and his work, seeing as neither of us has actually been able to read Modern Magic beyond some of the introduction…" Matt mused as they made their way slowly to the classroom at eleven that night.

"Well yeah. He'll think we're either retarded, screwing with him, or on some sort of illegal substance. I think we should just approach him after class and try and casually mention that we're interested," Emily replied.

"But that's kind of an odd segue into the conversation, isn't it? 'Yeah I want to Summon my pet cat, BY THE WAY could you show me how to send a bolt of purple lightning to kill all I hate?" Matt asked, somewhat sarcastically.

"You got a better idea?" challenged Emily.

"We've got an hour to think of one," said Matt, rubbing his eyes tiredly; he was happy the week was almost finished.

Summoning was the smallest class, by far, that Matt and Emily had ever seen. Ten students had signed up for the class, some merely for curiosity. Of their new Seaside friends, Ramirez, Toshio, and Lillian were the only three to join them. Nayoko had made another point to reiterate what a waste of time she felt the class was and Katrina decided not to add anymore to her already rough workload.

They sat in their seats quietly, Matt and Emily running through elaborate plans to catch Dr. Hourton's attention. Their professor, however, was almost ten minutes late, and just as half the class was considering leaving, he came bounding into the room with a booming greeting, his arms full of scrolls, books, and enormous rolls of parchment.

Matt and Emily had never seen any pictures of Lyle before, and his appearance surprised them. He was actually good-looking, with bright, wide, blue eyes and a slender face free of all blemishes, save for just a little too much stubble. His hair was dirty blonde, relatively short, and tousled in a very endearing way. His good looks came off as a shock, based on the amount of lunacy they'd heard about him previously.

"I apologize for my tardiness," he said, flashing a wide, white grin and scratching his neck, embarrassed. "I was pouring over some of these new scrolls and, well, you know how that goes…"

The class chuckled halfheartedly, glancing between each other. It was obvious that not a single one of them had a clue what he was talking about, but humoring Dr. Hourton seemed to be the best course of action given his already erratic pattern. He spread out some diagrams and scrolls around the walls and chalkboard with his wand, taking another five minutes to get himself completely set up. Finally, he whirled around to face them and clapped his hands together, making the class jump.

"Summoning. Anybody ever tried it?" he asked, smiling. When nobody raised his hand, he continued. "You're all filthy liars. That is, depending on how technical you want to be with the definition.

"Summoning is something that combines a little bit of all types of magic. Conjuration, obviously, but also Transmutation, Elemental, Healing, Charming, Transmigration, and of course Divination. Seeing as half of these classes are required for your schooling here at Seaside, I dare say you all have all at least tried each of the elements of Summoning at one point or another. What we're going to do is take those little pieces and tie it all together.

"You may have noticed that I require no text for this course. There isn't one, frankly. Summoning is one of the newest, most controversial subjects of modern-day magic ever offered, and it's a complete blessing and a testament to Dr. Tavoularius and Lady Shandra of her self-named academy that I was able to receive the permission from the A.W.A. to do a trial run of this course. Hence, I will be authoring the textbook based on all those things you see behind me on the wall, in addition to all the work we do in this course. In a way, you're helping me write the _first_ comprehensive Summoning textbook in the entire world."

He paused dramatically, waiting for the impact of his words to fully sink in. Matt and Emily glanced at each other, then to Ramirez, Toshio, and Lillian. The entire class shared the same half-confused, half-excited look, although it was obvious Dr. Hourton had expected a bit more reaction from them at this. Still, he didn't let it dampen his mood as he went through roll and began a basic examination of all the things they were going to touch on in the first month or so, before the real Summoning began.

"Tonight we're going to have a relatively short class," he said, walking back to the front of the room. "I've already given you the basics of the basics, and the only other thing I really want to do tonight is caution you to be very, very open-minded about this course. Whatever your background and faith, don't scoff at any alternative theories we pose for that will only hinder your abilities in this exciting new field."

Lillian raised her hand, nervously. Dr. Hourton beamed at her for a couple seconds, thrilled that someone other than him was finally speaking up.

"There… there is one thing confusing me," said Lillian. "From what I've heard… isn't Summoning just Conjuration…?"

"A fantastic question, and one I'm asked no less than seventy-five times a day," replied Lyle, leaping onto his desk and sitting cross-legged upon it. "The answer to your question, Miss Sicily, is sort of."

He savored the bewildered looks from his class for a full ten seconds or so before he felt the need to give a deeper explanation.

"Summoning involves the calling forth of something living, something that exists on the plane of consciousness we humans experience, and above. Conjuration, typically, involves the creation and bringing forth of something with your own magical powers from nothingness. Any inanimate objects fall under this category, especially much of the early Charming, Transmutation, and Conjuration curriculums here in America."

"Wait, though," said Ramirez, his hand shooting into the air. "We've already all done Summoning, back in our sophomore years. We Conjured a bunch of animals, everything from minor insects to armadillos and kittens."

"Soulless," replied Lyle, simply.

"Huh?"

"Soulless," he repeated, with a wide grin and a new twinkle in his eyes. "That's the difference between a Conjured puppy and, say, your dog back home. When any animal is brought forth with magic, it has no soul. It's sterile. Its genetic make-up, physical structure, and life expectancy all differ greatly from anything born naturally on the earth. That is Conjuration.

"Summoning, on the other hand, is the calling forth of something already living on this planet, something already containing a soul. There's also the theory that things can be called forth from planes higher than what we can see on earth… but we won't get into that until much later."

Dr. Hourton continued to smile at everyone, casually stretching his arms above his head and yawning. When he finally decided nobody else was going to ask any questions (due to the fact that it was far too late in the evening to get into metaphysical discussions), he bad them farewell with a short assignment on what types of things they'd like to Summon, if given the chance.

The class filed out, and Matt and Emily both awkwardly took extra time to pack up their things. Dr. Hourton didn't seem to notice them at first as he began to take down all of the parchment and pack up his books. After about two minutes of a very heavy silence, he turned around and started; he now realized two students were hanging back to talk to him.

"And what can I do for the two of you?" he asked, smiling and sitting on his desk, crushing some scrolls beneath him.

"We… er…" Matt trailed off, "Dr. Hourton, we're basically just… we kinda just wanted to ask you… Emily and I wanted to talk to you about…"

Watching her friend flounder pathetically, Emily picked up the slack, "We're here to ask you about Modern Magic. We're interested in the theories in the book, but we don't really understand most of it."

Lyle stared at them for a moment and then his face broke out into the widest grin they'd ever seen on someone his age. He looked absolutely astounded and thrilled that such young students were interested in his work, and he immediately threw open more parchments and started muttering to himself. He took his wand out and had everything float around him as he looked from formula to formula, still in his near-silent dialogue. Matt and Emily stared as he got more and more excited, scrawling something on one of the floating parchments already chock full of formulas and such.

"Fantastic fantastic fantastic fantastic…" he muttered, practically shaking with glee. "Please, forgive me, it's been so long since the last time someone has asked me about the book that I fear I need to brush up on my skills before I can properly get you all started and lecture on it… so how's next Monday sound for you?"

He had said this basically all in one breath and now stood hunched over, his face glowing like a kid at Christmas. He was still quivering with excitement, his parchment closing in around him slightly, quivering like him. Matt's mouth hung open awkwardly, and he glanced at Emily who was equally shell-shocked. They both agreed almost instantly after that because they feared it would be too shattering of a disappointment if they denied the man the right to bombard them with his theories.

"Bodacious!" he screamed, pounding his fist into the air and sending out sparks from his wand. "We will meet at that point, then, because I need to get my notes out of my file and organize my parchments and prepare a specific location for us to start talking and oh my lord it's going to be amazing!"

He left the room, his parchment and books trailing behind him haphazardly colliding with the walls and doorframes as they went. The two students left behind still had no clue what to make of what had just happened, except to realize their next Monday would be extremely busy. The vowed to get back to the book at some point that weekend to try and look like they had actually tried to read the book before things got a little too out of control.

Of course, that never happened. Quite possibly the poster children for procrastination, the two never even touched Modern Magic and barely scrapped by on their other homework on the Sunday night before most of it was due. The weekend had been full of lying on the beach (with a warning from Lady Shandra in her Thursday night class that it would be the last suitable beach week in the school year) and Quidditch, which was surprisingly less popular in America than Quodpod, a sport Matt and Emily found relatively boring comparatively. Unfortunately for them, Matt and Emily were joined by many of their new Seaside friends in the common study area overlooking the beach to scribble out their homework assignments. Nayoko Yakako was also there, helping Lillian, and made it her mission to occasionally throw in self-righteous comments about how she'd finished her homework all the day before.

At 12:30, a special assembly was called, much to the chagrin of some professors and students (who complained that Seaside was fated to apparently never have a full, uninterrupted week of classes for the rest of eternity). Nobody was really sure what said assembly was about, although when Matt and Emily sat at a table in the dining hall with Ramirez, Katrina, Lillian, and the Yakakos, they saw them muttering excitedly amongst themselves about something.

"Rumor has it Dr. T is getting promoted permanently," Toshio informed them as the Seaside teachers began to hush the murmurs running through the hall.

"Exciting!" Emily replied, grinning. "Easily the best choice they've got in this school."

"Will she stop teaching though?" muttered a worried Nayoko. "She's easily the brightest woman this department's had in years…"

"And of course you would be concerned about losing class time over someone else's happiness and success," retorted Teruhiko, bad-temperedly.

Matt turned his attention to the raised platform in the front-center of the room. Many of the teachers were already seated there, and at the podium stood a formal-looking witch wearing robes from the American Wizarding Authority. He shushed his friends at the table as they scanned for other non-staff faces. Another small group of A.W.A. representatives stood off to the right, including Ramirez's father, Kratos. He was doing a very poor job of concealing a wide grin and kept winking at his sons and wife.

"Good afternoon my fellow Americans," said the speaker abruptly when the hall had fallen silent. "From the American Wizarding Authority's Bureau of Education, I would like to extend my most sincerest gratitude to be invited here for such a wondrous occasion that is sure to benefit each and every one of you in the foreseeable future of your educational careers…"

And that was where a majority of the students tuned out. The woman's voice droned on in the same opening and introduction speech used by all A.W.A. reps, regardless of the occasion. Matt and Emily were not-so-happily reminded of their first year at Hogwarts, where Umbridge had made similar speeches. Their respective mental imaging of the woman, and the pain they wish they could have caused her, kept them busy until the long-winded witch finally finished up and got to the point of her speech.

"… it is my great pleasure to announce to you all that Dr. Josephine Tavoularius has been selected to succeed as your next Principal here at Seaside Magical Academy," she finally finished.

There was an eruption of cheering, clapping, and whistling. Dr. T smiled, put on a face of exaggerated surprise, followed quickly by faux sobs, and, finally, a wicked smirk and a victory fist pump. She accepted the handshakes of the A.W.A. employees and an extremely dramatic kiss from her husband before going to the speech-giving A.W.A. witch. Everyone continued to clap for about a minute afterward; she'd gotten a standing ovation from all the students and staff. When they finally died down, she addressed the room at large.

"Okay, let's be honest here: how many of you knew that this was going to happen three weeks ago?" she asked with the usual charming smile as a ripple of laughter went around the room. "But seriously, guys, I'm really excited about this. Now that I've got absolute control over all of you, we can finally put into motion a lot of things that I've wanted to get going, including a slew of international opportunities and brand new classes we've been fighting the A.W.A. (no offense guys) for funding for the past six or so years on. I'm happy to say our efforts have finally paid off and our first such class, the Summoning taught by my esteemed colleague Dr. Lyle A. Hourton, has seen enrollment ten times what we expected it to be.

"However, with my ascension to a higher plane of power, my old position as vice principal has been left open. Normally, it's the duty of the principal to make the decision as to who their VP is but with so many people new to our staff I decided to leave it in the hands of the A.W.A. It is my pleasure to announce that your new vice principal is Mr. Damascus Elliot, our newest Arithmancy professor!"

There was a smattering of lukewarm applause for their new VP, although nowhere near the scale of Dr. Tavoularius' celebration. He stood up and smiled at them, bowing his head respectfully, before sitting down (he was between Jerome Martine and Dr. Hourton himself, the latter of whom smacked him on the back in celebration). He was a good-looking man in his mid thirties with neatly trimmed, brown hair and a clean-shaven face. He wore a set of very formal wizarding robes, although underneath they could see a suit and tie as well; he was all business.

"He's a nice guy, though," muttered Katrina across the table when Emily made a comment on his attire. "He teaches my 2:30 on Mondays and Wednesdays."

"I heard he was chased out of England," said Teruhiko in a low voice. "Those… what do you call 'em… Death Munchers or whatever…"

"Death Eaters," replied Katrina, matter-of-factly. "And that's just a rumor. My parents said he was invited specially by Dr. Tavoularius and left of his own accord. There's no evidence he was ever threatened."

"How do your parents know so much?" asked Matt, curiously.

"A.W.A. Special Operations Unit," replied Katrina. "So technically I'm not even supposed to tell you that, so don't spread it around, ok?"

Matt and Emily looked at Katrina a little more closely after that exchange. They hadn't really gotten to know her much in the past weeks beyond the fact she was a smart, quiet, nice girl who played foil to Ramirez's boisterous, outgoing personality. But now that they knew her parents were well-connected in the A.W.A., they figured it would be a useful tool in case they needed to figure out anything else with

Matt and Emily didn't have a lot of time to ask Katrina about her family as they were ushered back to their afternoon classes. Abjuration was, unsurprisingly, cancelled while Dr. T got her office together and started working on some A.W.A. forms for the upcoming programs she'd mentioned in her speech. The free period meant very little, though, because she left notes with hefty assignments for her classes on the doors with cheerful reminders of punishments for those who didn't do said work.

Between dinner and their night class, Matt and Emily reported to Lyle Hourton's classroom for their private lesson. He was in a mode of panicked wall-papering when they arrived; nearly every square inch of the walls of his office were plastered with his usual parchment of theories, formulas, runes, and essays in about ten different languages. By now used to this scene, Matt and Emily skipped past the shell-shocked stage and plunged right in to the politely bewildered.

"So! You must be C-BAR right about now," Lyle said, beaming as he pasted a wall scroll haphazardly on the ceiling. "What do you know?"

"What's C-BAR?" asked Matt, ignoring his question.

"Confused Beyond All Recognition, of course!" said Lyle as though Matt was out of the loop for not knowing. "Now really. What do you know?"

"Next to nothing," said Emily. "Some of the introductory chapter, but not much beyond this."

"Oh," Lyle said simply, glancing around thoughtfully at the room. "Well we won't need a good eighty percent of these materials for tonight then. Probably not for the month. Ah well, never hurts to have it all out there in case I need to reference something. Do you guys understand Romanian?"

"N-no… just English and a bit of Spanish…" Matt replied, glancing around.

"Ah that's a pity. I've always said languages should be offered alongside all our magical courses," said Lyle, dreamily as he plastered more paper on the ceiling over the wall scroll with his wand. "Well, in that case, I'll translate this series of essays for you."

He opened a bag lying on his desk and withdrew a few very crumpled-looking pieces of parchment. The state of his bags shocked them; crushed materials were crammed into it to the point where it would be impossible to find anything. Dr. Hourton spread some of the worse off papers flat on his desk, trying to decipher what they said and whether or not it was the particular work he was looking for.

"Well this isn't the exact thing I wanted to start with," he said, smiling vaguely. "This one's in Portuguese. But it touches on everything we need to talk about tonight so it will have to do!"

"Sir… just out of curiosity, how many languages do you speak?" Matt asked, having wandered over to examine the different styles of writing on the wall.

"Oh… about eleven or twelve…" said Lyle, vaguely counting them off. "English, Spanish, French, German, Romanian, Portuguese, Mandarin, Cantonese, Japanese, Vietnamese, Arabic, Russian… and I have a passing knowledge of some tribal African tongues as well. I'm working on Croatian, Ukrainian, and Indonesian at the moment."

The two students stared at him after this revelation. They had never known anyone who could speak and understand so many languages; the most they'd ever experienced before that was a person who spoke four languages. Dr. Hourton finally managed to find the passages he wanted to address and conjured up chairs for the two to sit in and parchment to take notes on.

"So the first thing we need to discuss is the basic force of magic. Now, I'm sure you've been told repeatedly since you joined the wizarding world that magic is a presence inside a person, one that we manipulate within ourselves, usually through wands and/or staves. Is that correct?" queried Lyle, snapping on crooked reading glasses.

"Yeah," said Emily, nodding. "Hermione Granger, a girl back in Hogwarts, explained it to me for some reason one day. Said that it was probably a dominant gene that has infiltrated many of the bloodlines of the world in one way or another, which also accounts for Muggle-born witches and wizards…"

"Yeah… that's wrong," said Dr. Hourton brightly. Of course, this cut off Emily's explanation and left the two completely speechless. "And the good thing about you guys being Muggle born is that you'll probably be more open to this research than someone who has grown up in the rigid beliefs and society of the wizarding world. My theory, and the theory of dozens of other well-respected individuals in the world, is that magic, in fact, is an external force that we manipulate with us as nothing more than a catalyst."

He began to translate a few of the passages from the Romanian publication. The belief, he read, was that magic was present in the atmosphere, same as Muggle-discovered "ittie-bitties," and the human body, as well as other magical artifacts, were simply used to excite and manipulate these energies. While the theory was plausible, at least to the ears of Matt and Emily, a lot of the other things Dr. Hourton referenced believed this was wrong, namely because there had been no tests that could ever conclusively prove this.

He did mention that there were a variety of scenarios, which he outlined himself in an essay he'd penned for an American publication, that pointed out some support for his theory. The ability of children, and some older adults, to perform magic with no formal training, nor with any magical instrument, the ability to detect when magic had been used in an area, and an alternative explanation for Muggle-born wizards were the things he cited, although Matt and Emily had both heard many, many other theories for the presences of each thing, which they tactfully pointed out.

"You don't need to be so formal with me, by the way," Dr. Hourton explained after they'd raised a few of their points carefully. "I'm used to people shouting both grammatical and literal curses at me, and I love a good debate, so don't ever be afraid to express your opinions. However, there is one thing I need to know before we continue with our lessons: do you honestly and truly believe in my theories enough to sacrifice yourself and put yourself through any of the risks that come along with exploring this branch of magic?"

Matt and Emily didn't take long to decide, although they did flash back to certain, vivid memories from the years before. Specifically, they thought about their fight with the McGuires at the end of the previous semester, when Matt and Emily had been able to perform their own brand of magic, untaught in Hogwarts, or anywhere, for that matter. They had already experienced it once but been unable to reproduce it, so it wasn't that they didn't believe in his theory, it was just being able to fully understand it and regain the power they'd used previously.

"Of course," said Emily, nodding. "We're aware of the risks, for sure."

"Yeah," said Matt, with a nostalgic grin. "Some of our Professors at Hogwarts warned us of all the horrible things that could go wrong with experimental charming. A friend of ours, her mom actually died from it, come to think of it…"

"Well, in that case, we will continue our lessons, then," said Lyle, peering closely at them for a second with a half-smile playing on his face. "I have to be frank with you both; I thought you were putting me on for the most part. Many people have claimed interest in my work and then used the same argument you guys did about reading the introduction and being so interested and excited to help, only to turn out as malicious muckrakers in the end.

"But the two of you are different. You've got a deeper reason to try and learn this stuff even though it is, forgive me for saying so, way beyond your capacities to understand fully. I don't know what your reasons are; I've never been good at Legilimency, so I doubt anybody short of Lady Shandra could ever coax out of you the real reason you're asking me for these lessons… but fate is a funny thing, so who knows, you may one day reveal it to me. We shall see."

_The man is an expert in the passive-aggressive guilt trip…_ Matt and Emily thought simultaneously as Lyle turned from them and began to pack up the scraps of essays and diagrams and papers he had on his desk. It was no wonder he was so well-liked by Lady Shandra; even without the Gift he was an intuitive person and had seen right through their façade. After bidding him a quick goodnight, Matt and Emily tore back to Matt's dorm to discuss what had happened.

"We should also write to Shailagh and see if she has any new information," Matt said after he made sure Ramirez and Teruhiko weren't in the room or anywhere on the floor.

"Yeah… oh damn, I need to check my stuff to see if I have any of Seth's shit," said Emily with a snap of the fingers.

Emily went through all of her belongings over the remainder of the week, but found nothing of Seth's, even the books he'd given her for Christmas. She never remembered getting rid of them and simply assumed her mother had purged them in a cleaning spree of some sort. Meanwhile, Shailagh was quick to respond, stating she had interesting news to share with them and would be journeying up to Seaside with Lady Shandra and the Top Five for the last weekend of September.

"_We must keep our discussions a secret, however, because my ideas aren't the safest and will be exceptionally difficult to pull off_," Matt read to her on the Thursday night after their AP Elemental class got out. "What do you suppose that means?"

"That we're probably going to go AWOL on Seaside for a little while," said Emily, a mischievous twinkle in her eye.

"Oh good," said Matt with a roll of his eyes. "Nothing like going behind the backs of Dr. T and the A.W.A. for some good ole' life threatening fun, right?"


	3. Chapter 3

**Author's Note:**

**Holy cow I'm A-plus at not being consistent with updates. Anyway, after what has probably been a couple years (or three), here's the third chapter. My hopes to have this done before my Senior year at college definitely flew out the window. At any rate, enjoy!**

Chapter Three: The Seer's Plan

Matt and Emily had only to focus on getting through the school week until Shailagh arrived. They kept her upcoming ideas on their mind, wondering what exactly they were going to end up doing when she finally revealed her plans. They told Ramirez and Xavier about the Hackers' impeding visits and they responded with good-natured excitement. The rest of their friends looked forward to it as well (except Nayoko, of course, which put Lillian in a tight spot). Dr. Tavoularius also showed extreme excitement to Lady Shandra and her Top Five coming, happily saying she wanted to keep Shailagh and Siyon especially close to Seaside.

After they got out of AP Abjuration on Wednesday, they ran into Jerome Martine, who had just finished his Academic Transmutation lesson with the freshmen. They hadn't had a lot of time to meet with Jerome since the madness of Salem, with him going back and forth between Britain and England to see his family. They hadn't even really talked to him much as it was; he'd been a Seventh Year when Matt and Emily were 5th years, well before they'd become good friends with Jose and Mateo. Regardless, he still invited them to dine with him in his office that evening, to which Lillian was also invited.

They carried trays full of deliciousness to his office that evening, anxious to know how things were going at Hogwarts and with their friends. Jerome greeted them warmly, changing his desk and some chairs into a decently-sized dining set. They ate slowly, keeping up with small talk to break the nice and get a bit more familiar with each other. Jerome was very amiable and very easy to speak to. From his tone it seemed like he thought of the younger teens as friends from way back.

Finally, once the conversation died out on discussions of Seaside's teaching versus that of Hogwarts, an awkward silence hung over them. Their deserts had been eaten and Matt and Emily especially felt stuffed. Lillian showed signs of wanting to leave, checking her watch and glancing at the wall clock above Jerome's desk to make sure everything was right. With the briefest of glances at each other, Matt and Emily launched into their questions.

"What is going on out there? We haven't heard from anyone, but with all the insanity going on…" Matt asked, tentatively.

Jerome's smile faltered at that. He sighed and rubbed his fingers through his neatly-trimmed moustache. Matt and Emily felt their insides shaking; Shailagh had said that she didn't think things were going good, but they didn't know any details at the time.

"Hogwarts has really gone downhill since you two left last year," he said, finally. "Mateo, Jose, and Lisa were telling me all about it last weekend. Ever since the Ministry fell over the summer, things have been really odd."

"Are they okay, your brothers?" asked Lillian, quickly.

"Oh there as alright as they can be," Jerome said, sighing. "Mateo is really unoffensive so he's not my worry. Jose can be really stubborn about stuff, especially when he's with Lisa. They've already got detention five times between the two of them…"

"Wait how? They usually behaved really well… whose the Headmaster and stuff?" asked Emily.

Jerome looked shocked, as did Lillian. They didn't realize that the other two didn't know even the basic details of the re-staffing of Hogwarts following Dumbledore's death. Matt and Emily shared an equally surprised look; what huge details had they not known?

"Well… they've got a bunch of new people," said Jerome, frowning. "These two disgusting excuses for human beings, the Carrows, took over Defense Against the Dark Arts and Muggle Studies…"

"What happened to Professor Burbage?" asked Lillian, gasping.

"She's one of the many dozens who have disappeared," said Jerome, sadly. "Anyone in Muggle-based jobs is under tight surveillance, or has already been taken. The fanatic racism against Muggle-born wizards has skyrocketed; word has it nobody who wasn't at least half-blooded was accepted to Hogwarts this year.

"As for the Muggle Studies class itself, Mateo said it became compulsory for everyone in the school, right from Year One. But they don't teach it like they have in the past; they teach it to look down on all Muggles and everything about them. Anyone who disagrees with what Carrow has to say is beaten and put in detention. That's how Jose got a couple of his."

"That's disgusting! How can McGonagall allow this?" Matt said, gasping. "Surely she wouldn't let any of her students…"

"McGonagall isn't in power," said Lillian, softly.

"Wait, then who replaced Dumbledore? Flitwick? Sinistra? Oh god don't tell me it was Slughorn…" Emily said.

"It was Professor Snape," Jerome informed them.

Emily was struck dumb in mid-sentence and Matt was so shocked he forgot to breath for a couple of seconds. The bastard that had killed Professor Dumbledore was now running Hogwarts, despite having been on the run at the end of last summer. They couldn't even believe it. And yet that wasn't even the most shocking news.

"For detentions," Jerome informed them a short time into the conversation later. "Among other things, students are used as dummies for Dark Arts spells, including the Imperious and Cruciatus Curses. That's basically what the Defense Against the Dark Arts class has become."

"They're illegal!" cried Matt, unable to even comprehend that. "How is all of this happening?"

"The Ministry fell way more than you probably even realize," said Jerome, sadly. "Everything is in disarray. It's become a Holocaust for anyone who isn't pure blooded and full of hatred. I'm trying to convince Ma and everyone else to come out here with me, but they won't leave Dad's grave…"

He sighed and lapsed into silence. Matt and Emily's minds were spinning; it was as though the entire world they'd known back in England had been completely ripped apart and turned inside out. They thought of their friends back at Hogwarts, especially those who they knew weren't pure-blooded. It scared them, and made them feel powerless; Jerome informed them that mail, especially international correspondence, was under tight surveillance. With so many people in hiding, too, it would be almost impossible to contact most of their friends.

"The best we can do is hope that something happens to collapse You-Know-Who and his followers," said Jerome, sadly.

It was a solemn good-bye they said to Jerome before they headed back to their dorms. The numbness they'd felt when they'd learned about everything going on at Hogwarts was starting to wear off, being replaced by rage and a desire to do something about it. Since Shailagh and Siyon would finally be arriving the next day, they would finally have a chance to see what her big plan was. With any luck, it would involve getting back to England and seeing their friends.

Lady Shandra and her Top Five arrived just after the last afternoon classes were dismissed the following day. Matt and Emily saw Shailagh and Siyon walking in the shadow of their master with their heads held high and their eyes locked forward. Rigid discipline kept them in place, a straight line of simple, black robes with an ornate, golden S holding the robes closed. The regal group was met at the Front Hall by Dr. Tavoularius Damascus Elliot, and Dr. Hourton, before Lady Shandra departed for her afternoon Meditation. The Top Five remained behind, another girl and two guys besides the Hackers. The Seaside students, for the most part, gave them a wide berth, except for the ones who knew Shailagh and Siyon.

"Good to finally see you again!" Matt exclaimed as they rushed up.

"Same to you," said Shailagh, tilting her head respectfully.

The other Top Five peered curiously at the Seasiders who had arrived. One boy looked bored with the proceedings, his eyes somewhat out of focus. The other girl held a vague smile on her face, her eyes bright and friendly. The final member, a tall, handsome guy with flat, emotionless eyes (much like Siyon's) was clearly judging them. Even Siyon seemed to be somewhat removed, barely acknowledging them as they greeted her. Shailagh sensed their confusion.

"When we wear our regalia, we are expected to be stoic and professional," explained Shailagh. "Of course, we can't talk about much until tomorrow afternoon, once Lady Shandra and Dr. Tavoularius have finished their meetings."

"What are they meeting about?" asked Emily, curious.

"Eh. Administrative stuff I guess," replied Shailagh, with a shrug.

"We should join Lady Shandra in Meditation," the tall boy said, his voice a monotone reminiscent of Morgan Freeman.

The Seers all left and Matt and Emily headed into dinner, excited about their upcoming plotting with Shailagh. Ramirez and Xavier were equally excited to hear about the Hackers' return, as was Lillian. Nayoko, of course, was less than thrilled.

"I don't understand why she needs her personal guard with her wherever she goes," muttered the angry girl as she poured over a book on Arithmancy. "Nor why they dedicate their time to such a useless branch of magic."

"It's not useless," snapped Emily, always on the brink of her patience with the girl. "Shailagh and Siyon are both incredibly talented with all different types of Divination, and Shailagh has predicted things directly on more than one occasion."

"Don't mind her," said Teruhiko, sliding up behind his sister and pulling her hair tie out. "She's just cranky because it's something she never could do."

"Leave me alone Teruhiko!" snarled Nayoko, furious at her messed up hair. She snatched up her tie and book and stormed off to her brother's chuckles while Lillian went after her to make sure she was alright.

"It's a shame she's so narrow-minded about all of this," Katrina said, thoughtfully twisting a line of spaghetti on her fork.

"You believe in Divination, Katrina?" said an amused Teruhiko, taking Nayoko's vacated seat and dinner.

"It's not something I myself partake in," she said with a shrug. "But I'm also not going to call others out on it if it's what they truly believe."

"Ever a pacifist aren't you?" said Ramirez with a smile.

"It's better than bitching everyone out who doesn't agree with me and then making dinners awkward," said Katrina, cutting her eyes to Nayoko's disappearing head among the crush of students entering for an early dinner.

Divination was more strenuous than usual that evening for the AP Seniors. Lady Shandra was flanked by her Top Five, each sitting silently and rigidly as their Headmaster walked the group through a very pointed and difficult lecture on the dreams and interpretations of people, as well as intuitions, gut-feelings, and other premonitions. Matt especially found it hard to focus because he kept straying his thoughts onto what Shailagh, sitting up with her eyes locked on the ground in front of Lady Shandra, was planning to discuss with them the following day.

"While following your gut feelings may be important, it is equally important to _pay close attention to tasks at hand_," Lady Shandra said, coldly, as she passed Matt's row. His head jumped up and he met her eyes, immediately wishing he hadn't as he felt her eyes going straight through into his mind.

"Sorry, it's been an… er… odd couple of days," said Matt, bowing his head in what he hoped was a respectful manner and not an obvious dodge-the-Legilimency tactic.

"Be that as it may, your inability to separate yourself from the events in your life will hinder your progression in Divination," said Lady Shandra, turning swiftly away and returning to the front of the room. "Now, students, as we've finally reached the end of our first month of lectures, it is time for all of you to decide upon your _focus_ for your remaining time at Seaside.

"My time to lecture has mostly ended. I will conduct a final two lectures on dream interpretations and intuitions, but after that I will have new duties to fulfill in my life. While I will check in on all of you for weekly progress reports, most of your remaining learning will become an Independent Study of sorts. Many of you have never experienced such a course in your lives, but all students at my Academy are expected to do it from the beginning of their scholarly career.

"With me tonight are some of my finest students, you will have informally heard of them referred to as the Top Five. Each excels in the different disciplines of Divination that you can choose from. Tonight, they will give you advice and guidance to help start you on your own path. In years past, Tea Leaves, Astrology, Tarot, and Dream Interpretations have been the most popular, but this is by no means the comprehensive list of what you can study. The rest of our time will be spent on this."

She clapped her hands together and the Top Five immediately went and positioned themselves around the room, spread out enough to offer privacy in conversations. Although only nine people took AP Divination, half the class flocked to the smiling girl, while the others spread out to the guys and Shailagh. Matt, feeling bad for Siyon, walked over to speak with her first.

"So what are your specialties?" asked Matt, smiling.

"You already know the answer," replied Siyon, fixing Matt with her gray-eyed glare. "You don't need to pity me. I don't take offense to being unchosen in something like this, especially by non-adepts."

"… no good deed, huh?" asked Matt, sighing. "Well I can say that emotion sensing and the object thing you do isn't my cup of tea, so… I guess we're done, huh?"

"Well I can at least point you in the right direction, I guess," replied Siyon. "What are you thinking about doing?"

"I'm torn between Tarot and Dream Interp," said Matt. "I'm not a big fan of anything else."

"Shailagh is your go-to-girl for Tarot, although Judith is technically more adept at it. You won't get a chance to speak with her tonight, in case you were wondering," she added, glancing over to her swamped classmate.

"I figured as much. And as for interp?" Matt asked as the other males in the class fawned over Judith.

"The tall, dead-looking guy over there, Nico. He's your guy for that. I'm also fairly adept, but not nearly as much as him," said Siyon, the smallest traces of jealousy in her voice.

"I think I'll go with the Tarot after all," said Matt, glancing at Nico's imposing frame.

"Whatever. Shailagh's waiting to speak with you anyway," said Siyon, dismissively looking out the window toward the dark ocean.

Matt headed over to Shailagh as one of his classmates walked away looking a little confused. Shailagh sighed and rolled her eyes at Matt before motioning him to come a little further away from everyone else.

"He's basically going to fail," said Shailagh. "His question? What's the easiest. Heh. As if a true Diviner would take the easy way out."

"I'm going for Tarot, and Siyon, with an even cloudier demeanor than usual, said to speak with you," Matt said.

Shailagh sighed. "Siyon may have been able to let go of most of her emotions, but her vanity and condescension towards anyone who doesn't go to Lady Shandra's isn't going to win her any favors. Speaking of that, what happened back there?"

"Oh… I just started dozing off and thinking about our planning tomorrow," Matt replied, sheepishly. "I didn't get much sleep last night and—"

"Did she see inside your mind?" asked Shailagh, cutting through his rambling excuse.

"I don't… think so?" Matt said, tentatively. "I mean… I don't think I've ever had a Legilimency done on me so…"

"I'll show you what it's like," said Shailagh, fixing him with her blazing emerald eyes. Matt felt himself suddenly reliving various memories right before his eyes, with Shailagh standing near him as they watched.

"It definitely wasn't like that," Matt concluded after she released him.

"We should be fine then. The Tarot is a very difficult route to go on, Warren, so I wonder if you're truly able to withstand the forces that come with it," Shailagh said, her voice becoming more serious and assertive.

"I... think I can handle it," said Matt, catching on quickly for once. He felt Lady Shandra walk behind them, but he didn't dare turn to look as Shailagh launched into a brief but confusing explanation of the finer points of the art of fortune telling with the cards.

Once everyone had declared their final decisions for independent study, Lady Shandra dismissed the class. As they walked back toward the dorms, Matt heard a lot of muttering from the others about the Top Five, mostly about how they appeared so arrogant and ridiculously narcissistic. The unlucky few who had approached Siyon seemed to have the most negative feelings about the group, although Nico and Shailagh's seriousness weren't far off either.

"They certainly don't know how to mix with us normal folk, huh?" suggested one of the other guys, bad-temperedly.

"I don't think that's true, though," muttered Lillian in a small voice. "I mean… they just have a different schooling situation than us…"

"Yeah, doesn't given them any right to be bitches to us, though, does it?" retorted the boy.

"I don't think they're bitchy at all," said Ramirez, sliding in between Lillian and the boy to head off any further arguments. "A full day of meetings and then sitting through a night class of things that they see as basic? Wouldn't you be a little bit antsy?"

"Smooth," Matt whispered as they branched off between guys and girls' dorms.

"I'm becoming my mother more and more each day," Ramirez sighed, dramatically shaking his head.

Friday's classes seemed to drag on for Matt and Emily especially. Dueling was rough for Matt, whose could barely focus and, as a result, was thrown into the wall from a jinx he should have easily been able to block. For Emily, the toughest course to focus on was easily Dr. Ching's Healing, and it wasn't long until he picked up on her inattentiveness and began to grill her with complicated questions on the Healing process. Even Magical Zoology was hard to get excited about when they realized they only had a couple of hours remaining until their plotting with Shailagh and Siyon.

They got a welcome break just before dinner when a school-wide announcement came across that Summoning Seminar was cancelled for the week. According to Ramirez and Shailagh, Dr. Hourton, Dr. T, and Lady Shandra were going off-campus for a night of fun to belatedly celebrate Dr. T's promotion, clearing the way for uninterrupted plotting. After a quick dinner, they met in a deserted part of the library to start talking.

"Did you have anything of Seth's?" Shailagh questioned Emily while Siyon kept a lookout.

"No. I checked all of my things and even asked my Mom to go through my things at home. I must've thrown the book away or something," replied Emily, apologetically.

"I don't think so, you loved that book," said Matt. "You always had it in Defense and History of Magic. I'm pretty sure you just left it at Hogwarts somewhere."

"And that's about the only thing I can think of," said Emily. "I don't recall Seth giving me anything else or us exchanging gifts and such. It may be the only way we have to figure things out."

"Artifact Conjunction is our best bet," confirmed Shailagh. "And there are a few other nagging things I've been trying to think about since last year."

"Like what?" asked a confused Matt.

"Just… something… about the castle… it makes me feel like I'm missing something important, and that maybe if I go back I can figure it out and correct my mistakes…"

"You're not talking about… Dumbledore's death?" asked Emily.

"I am, in fact," said Shailagh, nodding solemnly. "I know I missed something that could have given me the clue earlier. And I don't want to make that same mistake again. You guys have the McGuires to worry about, but I worry more about He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named and his followers."

"Yeah," said Matt. "And I worry for everyone at Hogwarts since those Carrows came to teach…"

"Jerome has already spoken to you about that, I presume," Shailagh said. "I've had Siyon do some Conjunction on the things they gave me and… to be honest… it's even worse than what he knows."

"Seriously?" asked Matt, terrified.

"I'm afraid so," confirmed Siyon from her spot further down the row. "It goes deeper than the bruises and aches from the detentions. The psychological trauma, the eternal fear… your Hogwarts isn't the magical school of learning anymore so much as a concentration camp of Muggle-hatred training. It's sickening to see…"

"And my guess is that, with the Dark Lord back, Hogwarts security is going to be close on impenetrable," said Shailagh. "Which is why we're going to have to carefully plan to break in."

"Told ya!" exclaimed Emily, cheerfully. "Told ya it would be something dangerous and fun!"

"Yes," said Matt. "Figures."

"So how are we gonna risk our lives this time?" asked Emily, smirking.

"It's not a joking matter," hissed Siyon. "Capture equals death."

"It won't really be so bad," said Shailagh. "There's a Hogsmeade visit during our Thanksgiving Break. So that will be our best day to sneak in."

"But they'll know it's us, won't they?" asked Matt.

"Polyjuice Potion is a remarkable substance," said Shailagh. "And, you'd be surprised how readily available it is at Lady Shandra's."

"You can get us Polyjuice Potion?" gasped Matt, shocked. "Why do you guys even _have_ that much?"

"Though Divination is the top priority at Lady Shandra, Illusion magics are second. Diviners can also use the illusions to their advantage, either to help questioning persons open up or trick them to give out information they otherwise wouldn't have," said Shailagh. "I've dabbled in quite a bit of Illusionary magic since we've last attended school together. And, forgive me for bragging, but Lady Shandra has said I'm an absolute natural at it."

"No surprises here," said Matt, nodding. "Your Charms were always formidable."

"So we've got the Polyjuice Potion and the Illusion charms. But how do we get in?" asked Emily.

"The plan is that Jose, Mateo, and Lisa will meet us in Hogsmeade as early as they possibly can," said Shailagh, laying out a piece of parchment with a rough map on it. "Matt will change into Jose, Emily, you'll become Lisa. Mateo and I will stay our normal selves."

"Why won't you change?" asked Matt.

"Because I'm still technically enrolled at Hogwarts," said Shailagh, smirking. "I'm on the roster as "exchange" and I doubt they've noticed enough to bother fixing it. They're too busy rounding up Muggle-borns to be concerned about a pure-blood on the other side of the pond."

"Plus," said Siyon, idly. "They don't want to draw international attention, remember? Or at least… no more than there already is. If they feel Americans are threatened… well, you know how the A.W.A. is."

"Correct," Shailagh, said, nodding. "So, anyway, I'll be wearing my Hufflepuff robes and I doubt any security will see anything wrong. Any professors who aren't the Carrows will know who I am and just assume I've come back for either a visit, or to return, and if there's a magic guard I won't set it off because I still am bound to Hogwarts."

"Fantastic," said Matt. "So we get into Hogwarts. Then what?"

"Well… they let you go to Hogsmeade at about 9 in the morning, so that's when we'll meet up with the others. You have to be back to the castle by no later than 4 due to the new regulations imposed by Snape, so we've gotta be quick. We'll drink the potion and switch into our robes and head back to Hogwarts.

"Once inside, we've only got a couple of hours to complete our mission. Matt, Emily, your job is to find that book. Check the lost-and-found and the library, if it's in there, Pince will certainly know where it is. Mateo will be there to guide you and keep you safe from any unforeseen circumstances or new practices."

"Where will you be, then?" asked Emily.

"I'll be on my own personal mission," replied Shailagh. "Anyway, once you complete your mission, or if it gets to be about 2 or 3, you need to go back to Hogsmeade. If anyone questions you, make up some excuse about having to go back to Zonko's or something similar. We'll meet back up with Jose and Lisa and switch back. We need to be out of Hogsmeade no later than 4:30 to avoid curfew restrictions."

"That sounds like a safe plan to me," said Matt. "Or… well… as safe as breaking into a wizarding school in a Death Eater-controlled country can be…"

"It's not ideal, that's true…" said Shailagh with a small smile. "But… it's the best we've got."

"But what if I can't find that book before we have to leave?" asked Emily, worried about her part. "If I can't find it, our trip will be for naught and we'll have to think of something else…"

"Don't worry, when you get to Hogwarts, your surroundings may awaken new memories, perhaps guiding you to something of his you may have forgotten you had," replied Shailagh.

"And what if the stuff is still in my common room for some reason? I can't get into Gryffindor disguised as Lisa…" said Emily.

"I wouldn't worry. The house elves clean up all of the dorms to the extent you wouldn't even believe. There's no way it could have been left there, trust me," said Shailagh.

"Incoming," Siyon muttered, opening a book and casually leaning back in her seat.

The others followed suit, immediately breaking off their close contact and starting to look like they were doing work. A couple of seconds later, the quiet laughter of Ramirez, Katrina, and Teruhiko reached their ears, the three friends coming around the corner to meet them.

"Hey guys, good to see you again," said Katrina, smiling.

"You can't be seriously doing work on a Friday night," said Teruhiko, walking over and smacking the back of Matt and Emilys' chairs. "Classes are cancelled. Our Principal is off campus. Why the hell aren't we partying it up?"  
"Do you truly believe students from Lady Shandra's Academy would ever spend a Friday night slacking off on our studies? Do you think our demanding curriculum permits us to enjoy the amount of recreation time you Seaside students so often partake in?" Siyon asked, her voice colder with each passing word.

_Woah. A little too much, Siyon…_ Matt and Emily thought at the same time. A short, uncomfortable silence followed as Teruhiko threw up his arms in defeat and cracked a slightly uncomfortable smile.

"It's amazing you and Nayoko don't get along," he said. "You're on the same level of misery when it comes to your work."

"Please forgive my cousin," Shailagh cut in, quickly. "It has been a very trying couple of days for us and we are behind in our studies. We were hoping to get ahead tonight to enjoy the most of our free time tomorrow."

"Well, then, maybe we can help!" Ramirez said, happily sitting on the desk next to Shailagh. "I mean granted Matt and I are the only two who take Divination but Kat is really good with a lot of other stuff and Teru… … well, he can lighten the mood better than anyone I know."

"Thanks, ass," Teruhiko said, lightly punching his friend as he walked by. "As fun as Friday Night Study Club sounds, I'm going to pass and go have a couple of butterbeers in the dorm."

"Suit yourself. Close your blinds," said Shailagh. "Dr. Ching is on the hunt tonight."

"Will do, Madame Psychic," said Teruhiko, saluting the girl and walking away.

"I thought Dr. Ching went off campus, too?" asked Emily, recalling an off-hand announcement he'd made toward the end of class.

"You would think so but you'd be wrong," said Shailagh. "He's gonna catch someone tonight. Figured I'd save Teruhiko and Ramirez the trouble of dealing with it."

"Much obliged," said Ramirez, grinning at a now-rosy Shailagh.

Unfortunately for the plotting seniors, Ramirez and Katrina stayed with them and chatted until the library closed. It was good for their schoolwork (Matt finished two essays for History and Potions and Emily completed a Charming exercise journal) but it meant they weren't able to ask any further questions about the Infiltration of Hogwarts plan. As they tossed and turned that night, Matt and Emily thought about all the things that could go wrong with the plan… and how exciting implementing it would actually be.

The next day, a storm blew in, and torrents of rain and gale besieged Seaside. Trapped inside for most of the day, the students spread out all over the buildings, making it nearly impossible for Matt, Emily, and Shailagh to get privacy. They only managed about five minutes in one of the Library's massive wings before Ramirez and Katrina found them again, this time flanked by Toshio, Lillian, and Nayoko (the latter of whom stalked off upon seeing the Hacker cousins).

"No Teruhiko this morning?" said Matt, quickly covering for the clouded faces of Emily and Siyon.

"Hung-over, of course," said Ramirez, chuckling. "But at least Dr. Ching didn't catch him. He tried his damndest too."

"It sucks about this rain, though," said Toshio, setting down a stack of books next to Siyon (who scooted her chair a bit further down the table to avoid him). "But I guess that means I'm getting ahead on my work today."

"Yeah, I'm almost to the point where I'm caught up and somewhat ahead," said Matt, his stack of Transmutation and Abjuration books next to him. "All I have left is all of this and my Divination Formal Announcement."

"What'd you end up choosing, Ramirez?" asked Shailagh, curiously.

"I'm going to try Dream Interpretation I think," said Ramirez. "Mom wouldn't let me do anything easier than Tarot and I don't want to be the one to compete with Matt on that."

"Katrina," Emily said, an idea popping into her head. "I have a favor to ask you, could you help me with my AP Potions assignment?"

"Sure, what do you need?" asked Katrina, setting her things down on the other side of Siyon (who was now extremely uncomfortable with the closeness of her neighbors).

"It's about that research assignment we have to do. Toshio, Lillian, you guys and Ramirez have to do it too, right? Maybe we could go work on it together…" said Emily.

"Not a bad idea," said Ramirez. "Thanks for the offer."

"Maybe Nayoko would like to join us too…" suggested Lillian, tentatively.

"Yeah…" said Shailagh, catching on to Emily's act. "Siyon and I will stay here, of course, while you guys go and figure that out. She wouldn't even consider working with us, right?"

"I don't have AP Potions, though," said Toshio, bringing the plan to a halt. "I'll just stay here and work on something…"

"That's all right," said Emily, not letting her irritation at the less-than-successful plan show. "We'll see you in a bit, then."

Shailagh, however, had her covered. "Siyon, didn't you say you were interested in one of the theories of Dark Arts they teach here? Toshio takes AP Dark Arts, he might be able to show you…"

"I really don't think—" Siyon began, coldly.

"Oh! Yeah, I have to actually get a book out about their effects on psychological trauma. Come on, Siyon, I'll see if we can answer your question while I'm at it," an enthusiastic Toshio said, standing up.

"I… fine," said Siyon, throwing a furious look at her cousin. "Carry on."

"Hi, my name is Emily and Shailagh and I manipulate people like it's my job," said Matt, grinning widely.

"Well, now that they're out of the way, how about we—" Shailagh began, but, once again, was cut off by a new arrival.

"You guys seen my brother?" Xavier Tavoularius asked, his spiked-mohawked head appearing around the corner.

"Oh… he's across the library with Kat, Emily, Lillian, and probably Nayoko. Potions assignment," said Matt, quickly.

"Ah, I'll just wait here for him, you don't mind, right?" said Xavier, not waiting for a response and throwing down a pad and quill, proceeding to work on a sketch of someone.

There wasn't anything Shailagh or Matt could do about it, and their conversation was, frustratingly, cut off again. For fifteen minutes they sat in silence, Shailagh scribbling something down in a journal and Matt pretending to read the upcoming Transmutation chapter. Siyon and Toshio returned, and the former shot a look of pure venom at her cousin when she caught sight of Xavier. Emily and the others returned not long after, deep in discussion about their assignments. Emily snuck a quick look at Matt and Shailagh but never let her tone change, continuing to explain her particular confusion over the difference between a Strengthening Solution and Empowering Draft to Katrina.

The stormy afternoon passed in much of the same vein. With the amount of people around them, it was no surprise that Shailagh, Siyon, Matt, and Emily had no chance to speak of anything other than their schoolwork. At four, Shailagh and Siyon packed up, stating their rendezvous with Lady Shandra was approaching. Matt and Emily quickly threw their things in a bag, desperately hoping for the chance to at least finalize something with the Hackers, but their hopes were dashed when Ramirez and Xavier also followed them out to the main hall foyer.

"Well, it's been fun. I don't know when we'll have time to visit again, but I'm sure it won't be long," said Shailagh, bowing her head respectfully to the Seaside students.

"Maybe we could come down and visit Lady Shandra's on a Saturday or something," Ramirez suggested, also lowering his head.

"I don't think Lady Shandra would simply allow—" Siyon began, curtly, but was cut off by an elbow to the stomach from Shailagh.

"What she means is, weekends are also busy times for us, especially in the Top Five, so we probably won't be able to accommodate you," she said, smiling brightly.

"Well, later then," said Matt, trying to keep the frustrated disappointment out of his voice.

"Yes, we'll be in touch," said Emily.

The Hacker cousins walked over to where the remaining Top Five were, and then it was out the huge entrance doors and into the deluge. Xavier broke off with a muttered excuse about a nap and Ramirez headed back towards the Library to finish a Transmigration assignment with Katrina. Matt and Emily exchange frustrated sighs and decided they were done for the day as far as work went. The two headed for the cafeteria, irritated and with thoughts full of annoyance and concern. They barely made it in the doors when Dr. Hourton, beaming widely, greeted them.

"Hello Matt, Emily, hope you had a good weekend because Dr. T wants to see you as soon as possible," he said, brightly.

"Oh? What about?" asked Emily.

"She didn't really say. But she's waiting in her office so just go when you get a chance. I'll let you know about your next Modern Magic lesson as soon as I can," said Lyle, leaving them quickly and disappearing into the hall.

"… s… should we just go now, then?" asked Matt, confused.

"Might as well," Emily groaned with a huge sigh. "It's not like we've got anything else to do today…"

The two turned around and headed back into the main building, up to the floor and around to the western wing. The different teachers' offices were located here and they saw some of their professors, but didn't stop to talk. Once they reached the center section, they knocked on the biggest door and waited. A calm request to enter greeted them, and they pulled the door open, only to be greeted with a sight that made their hearts stop momentarily.

Dr. T was sitting behind her desk, a sad smile playing across her face. Lyle Hourton was sitting on the one corner, rocking back and forth slightly with a sympathetic look on his. The scary part? Standing imperiously next to Dr. T with her hands folded across her chest was Lady Shandra, and her face was a mask of mixed anger and triumph. Then they noticed, seated in chairs in front of Dr. T's desk, were Shailagh and Siyon, whose heads were bowed. They made no effort to turn and look at Matt and Emily as the two numbly approached the desk.

"Please, have a seat," said Dr. T, conjuring up a pair of matching chairs for Matt and Emily.

They sat down and for a brief moment there was silence. Shailagh's face was unreadable, but Siyon's was pure fury etched on every inch, although her stare was directed toward her knees. Matt felt his arm shaking involuntarily as he sat and he quickly clamped it to his side to draw attention away from it. Emily gulped but forced herself to look their professors straight in the eye.

"You already know why you're here," said Dr. Tavoularius. "I'm not going to even waste any time with that. You also know, I'm sure, how incredibly stupid your plan was."

Silence greeted their words, although Matt had twitched again. The Hacker siblings didn't raise their heads at all, and Emily felt a sense of shame forming in the pit of her stomach as she looked back into Dr. T's stern face. Lyle had stopped bobbing and was instead looking serenely at the ceiling in a near-perfect Luna Lovegood impersonation. Lady Shandra's position hadn't changed, but her eyes had narrowed and occasionally flicked to Dr. T as she spoke.

"I shouldn't have to say this, but to break into Hogwarts on your own, even with the level of detail you've thought this plan through with… did you think we wouldn't figure it out? Or that the A.W.A. would just happen to notice two of their watch-listed candidates leaving the country?" asked Dr. T.

"We didn't—" Matt began, hoping to clear it up.

"Silence," said Lady Shandra, coldly, sweeping to the side of Dr. T's desk. "You, the one who betrayed your plans to me to begin with, have no place to speak."

"Matt!" Emily hissed, forgetting herself for a moment. "You told—"

"I didn't!" Matt said, starring at Lady Shandra. "I never told her. And she didn't use Legilimency on me—"

"You don't think I have any other way of obtaining unwilling information from anyone by any means other than Legilimency? Don't insult me, Warren," said Lady Shandra, her full glare back on Matt.

"You all, of course, will be punished," said Dr. Tavoularius, matter-of-factly. "However, and I can't believe I'm about to say this, we will allow you to come with us on the Hogwarts Excursion, directly under our supervision, of course."

"W… what?" asked the students, all stunned out of silence.

"Yep!" said Lyle, brightly. "We planned an International Excursion two years ago with the previous Headmaster of Hogwarts, Albus Dumbledore. Now the A.W.A. grant we received for it is about to expire, so we figured now would be a good time to grab a few Seniors and head out."

"Well, actually, it's more of a joint venture between Seaside and Lady Shandra's Academy," said Dr. Tavoularius. "Half of the students will be going to Japan to meet with local witches and wizards, and the other half, of course, will be going to Hogwarts."

"You will be under our direct control at all times," said Lady Shandra, taking over. "This is a risky maneuver. However… for your purposes… I have seen that this is a necessary trip. Our lives will also be put on the line, but it is for the eventual greater good. Therefore, you will obey any and all orders we give you without question. You will not take one step out of line. Should you disobey myself or Dr. Tavoularius and compromise our position, your fates will be unimaginably bleak."

They couldn't believe their ears. Even Shailagh the Stoic's face was awash in absolute shock. Siyon's rage had likewise been replaced, a mask of sheer confusion. Emily couldn't help but grin, though nervously, and Matt's look couldn't be described as anything better than simply broken.

"As for your punishment, a week's worth of detentions assisting whichever professors require your help should suffice. You're on duty from the time your last afternoon class lets out until the last twenty minutes of dinner," said Dr. Tavoularius, her characteristic smile returning. "And if anyone asks, your detention was the result of breaking a large crystal vase of mine due to careless horseplay and cursing."

"We'll discuss your repentance at the Academy," Lady Shandra said to Shailagh and Siyon. "Come. We're late."

Twenty minute later, after a hurried good-bye to their psychic friends, Matt and Emily walked back toward the dorms, still shaking on the inside from the turn of events. Now that they didn't exactly have to break out of the country, the trip to Hogwarts actually seemed much more exciting, and they couldn't wait to see everyone.

"Also, I love how we got off with a slap on the wrist," said Emily as they reached the split in the path for the guys and girls' dormitories..

"Yeah. It's such a Dumbledore Punishment," chuckled Matt as they went their separate ways.

**Author's Note:**

**Hopefully the next chapter won't take as long to construct. Until next time y'all!**


	4. Chapter 4

**Author's Note:**

**Oh look! An update! I've had this chapter done for a month now, I just sort of forgot to update it. But at least it's a long update, so hopefully the six of you who read this story enjoy it!**

Chapter Four: Hogwarts Revisited

It turned out that the punishment wasn't quite as simple and forgiving as they'd originally expected it to be. With them as practical slave labor, the professors of Seaside found very creative ways to make Matt and Emily work through their hours of evening detention, and they couldn't help but wonder if Dr. T had spoken to the professors beforehand and told them to make it worse.

For the first two days, they served their sentences together. On Monday, they spent their time cleaning all the Magical Zoology pens, with Professors Kearns and Ottis keeping a watchful eye on them as they tried not to disturb the Nifflers and Crups inside the pens. On Tuesday, Damascus Elliot had them sort through his papers, parchment, and quills, as he still hadn't unpacked his trunks in his office. They soon realized that, in addition to his impeccable professional appearance, he was also very particular about his things, and they spent the better part of two hours getting chastised for not having the correct stacks of parchments on the shelves or mixing up a six-and-a-half inch quill with a six-and-three-quarter inch one.

Their Wednesday detentions found them split for the first time. Matt was shanghaied into assisting Nicodemus Graff in the Astronomy department for a massive cleaning effort, and Emily helped the Herbology professors trim some of the less lethal plants (mostly because two minutes into trying to help prune the Fanged Geranium, it tried to maul her and she threw it against a window). Thursday was the absolute worst for both of them because Matt had to work with the irritable Phyllis Heckendora to clean out and arrange the Potions cabinets in the storage areas, and her system of organization was even more obscure and infuriating than Elliot's. Not to mention she already hated Matt due to his inability to pay attention to her in class. Emily, paired with Dr. Ching, became a pseudo-TA and was required to help grade papers. Eventually he realized she wasn't checking for details as much as blasting people whose writing wasn't up to par with what she believed the grade level would require, so he had her do straight-answer tests instead.

They rounded out Friday night's detentions with manual labor (in Matt's case; Lt. Briggs had him move big, heavy boxes without magic for no seemingly good reason) and Emily got called to the Ancient Runes classroom so that Dr. Elbaz could have her move boxes upon boxes of heavy runes from one classroom to another. Their tasks completed, the two returned to their dorms, catching up on work they'd missed due to their week of detentions, though Lillian and Ramirez did visit to try and help them catch up.

With the trip to Hogwarts only a week away, everyone found it especially hard to focus in their classes. Of their new Seaside friends, Ramirez, Katrina, Lillian, and Xavier were planning to go to Hogwarts, while the Yakako's were, predictably, going to Japan. Matt and Emily talked about almost nothing else the entire week, talking about their favorite memories of Hogwarts, its size, and all its secrets.

"But… with all those changes you keep talking about, and the threat of wizarding terrorism, do you really think Hogwarts is going to be as wonderful as it is in your memories?" asked Nayoko during an impromptu study-session on Thursday evening.

Matt, Emily, and Lillian were quiet at those words. In their excitement, the fact that Snape was the Headmaster and two Death Eaters were on staff hadn't been present in their minds, and now that it came back, it definitely deflated a bit of their excitement. Plus, given the dangers they were undertaking to enter the school, it definitely took the trip from exciting to intimidating. Teruhiko, seeing the change come over them, knocked Nayoko's books off the desk, causing her to promptly ditch the study group.

Unfortunately, the seed had been planted, and the former Hogwarts students clearly couldn't focus on any of their Friday lessons. By the time Summoning Seminar rolled around, the small class couldn't even feign attention to Lyle's rambling stories and explanations, and he finally gave up, dismissing them early.

"For those of you going on trips tomorrow, please remember to use extreme caution and follow all professor warnings," he called after the front-most escaping students. "Matt, Emily, can I have a word?"

The two bade Lillian, Ramirez, and Toshio to go on ahead while they waited for Lyle to pack up most of his scrolls and objects. He finally turned to them, and his beaming smile came back and he leapt up to sit cross-legged on his desk.

"So since things have been so crazy the past couple of weeks, I say we have a meeting on Wednesday evening, right after dinner, to continue our discussions of Modern Magic principals. Is that fine with you both?" he asked.

"Absolutely," replied Matt. "We haven't had a chance to think about anything… it's been kind of a crazy day."

"Yes, well, I do wish I could go to Hogwarts with you all," said Lyle, smiling. "Unfortunately, I am unable to pass up an opportunity to go and meet the legendary Witch Ichihara, so I must suffer with Damascus in Japan for the weekend instead. Woe is me."

They returned to their dorms, packing their bags for the day's journey. Toshio and Teruhiko talked excitedly about a certain shop they'd planned to visit while in Tokyo, while Matt and Ramirez also made small talk about Hogsmeade village, though Matt was ruefully aware that he'd probably have no opportunity to do any real shopping. Likewise, Lillian excitedly whispered to Emily her plans to buy plenty of souvenirs for their friends at Seaside. Emily nodded, smiling, but then called it an early night. For the first time in a while, Red Wing made a midnight visit, thankfully not carrying anything dead and smelly.

"Hey Red," Emily whispered as the mini-eagle jumped down and landed on her outstretched arm. "Want to go back to Hogwarts with me tomorrow?"

The bird cocked his head to the side, let out a low screech, and took off, perching on her headboard. After a few moments of staring at her, he closed his eyes and began to snore softly. Emily smiled, looking out towards the window he'd flown in from, and her thoughts began to turn towards her first year at Hogwarts, and the close friendship she'd built up with Seth in that time. As she tried to figure out if there was anything she could have done to stop him, she drifted into unconsciousness.

The next morning, the Seaside students awoke, washed, and dressed early and quickly, meeting in front of the central building when the sun had barely risen. They were somewhat surprised to see that Lady Shandra's students were already waiting for them, and they quickly spotted Shailagh and Siyon among those in the Hogwarts group. As they made their way towards them, however, they suddenly heard their names behind them.

"Matt Warren, Emily Davis, Teruhiko Yakako, Nayoko Yakako, Toshio Yakako, and Lillian Sicily, please report up here post-haste," came the magically-modified voice of Dr. Hourton. "You didn't fill out your release forms!"

All those called looked at each other, perplexed, and hurried up the hill to meet them. Dr. Tavoularius, meanwhile, made a comment about how they were running late and that Lady Shandra and Lyle would have to take the late students themselves. She then gathered everyone around four different Portkeys and, after a few minutes, they spun into nothingness, away towards Hogwarts.

"Dr. Hourton," said an annoyed Nayoko. "I'm certain I turned in my release form two weeks before the deadline. I even had Dr. Elbaz sign saying—."

"I'm aware, Nayoko," said Lyle, jovially, as he and Lady Shandra walked them back into the main chamber. They checked to make sure nobody was missing, and, after a moment, Lyle withdrew a small flask.

"Nayoko, Teruhiko, a couple of hairs, if you please," said Dr. Hourton, smiling.

"W…what is that?" exclaimed Lillian, looking nauseated.

"Polyjuice Potion," said Dr. Hourton, still holding a hand out for hairs.

"Why do you need my hair?" asked Nayoko, her eyes wide. "Surely you're joking—."

"It's a necessary part of the plan, Miss Yakako. Don't hold us up any longer," said Lady Shandra, standing imperiously over her.

"Oh," said Lillian, nodding with understanding. "You'll be going as the Yakako siblings to Hogwarts, then?"

"I guess so," said Matt, looking at the taller, more muscular Teruhiko, who pulled out a few hairs with a grin and handed them to Lyle.

"Be careful with my body, Matt," said Teruhiko with a wink.

"I'm really not comfortable with this," Nayoko said, glowering.

"Oh for goodness sake, sis, just do it," said Toshio, ripping a hair out of her long ponytail.

"There we go," said Lyle, mixing the hairs in. Teruhiko's mix turned a deep sea blue, while Nayoko's became an acid green. "It tastes awful, just so you know."

"Thanks," Matt and Emily said, flatly.

They took a couple of sips, gagged, and almost dropped their containers. Their skin got darker, Matt grew three inches taller, and Emily felt her clothes loosen as she shrank to Nayoko's willowy figure. The others watched in mixed amazement and fear (or boredom, in the case of Lady Shandra) as they completed their transformations. Matt took off his glasses and put them in his robe pocket, while Emily pulled her long hair into a ponytail, conjuring a scrunchie to hold it back.

"Good move, Emily," said Lyle, nodding approvingly. "You both will need to play the parts of Teruhiko and Nayoko as well as you can. We're going to try and keep you in a controlled group as much as possible, but you will still need to try to avoid speaking with anyone, if at all possible. Is that understood?"

"Of course," said Matt, Teruhiko's deeper voice catching him off-guard.

"And don't forget," said Lady Shandra, warningly. "That potion will wear off each hour, so you will have to carry extra stores of it on your person for the remainder of the day."

"Oh it's only an hour?" said Matt, tilting his head to the side. "I could have sworn Professor Heckendora said it was good for a day."

Emily sighed and slapped her hand to her forehead, hitting a pimple at the hairline and making her cringe. Teruhiko laughed and punched the transformed Matt lightly on the arm.

"Well Matt's into character now," said Nayoko, rolling her eyes.

"And all Emily has to do is be a horrid bitch to everyone and she'll be set, too," replied Teruhiko, not missing a beat.

"That's enough, all of you," commanded Lady Shandra as Nayoko opened her mouth to retaliate. "Warren, Davis, Sicily, you will be in a group with the Tavoularius brothers, Shailagh, Siyon, and Judith. You will stay with me until we are safely into the castle. Polyjuice Potion will fool anyone who looks at you, but the magical wards of the castle will require the aid of myself and some of my Top Five. Are we in understanding?"

"Yes ma'am," said the others, bowing.

"Well, then, let's head to Tokyo, my friends," said Lyle, jovially taking out an old sock from his back pocket. Nayoko recoiled as she and her brothers each put a finger to it.

"Godspeed," said Lady Shandra as they spun out of sight. "Now, then: let us commence our journey as well."

She held out a small, silver instrument they couldn't identify. After a couple of seconds, the students gasped as they felt themselves spinning up and away from Seaside. The bumped against each other as they were flung through the space of the world, and, seconds later, they crashed into the ground. Matt managed to stay up in Teruhiko's sturdier body, while Emily and Lillian went crashing to the ground. Lady Shandra glanced down at the fallen girls, sighed impatiently, and helped them up.

"There it is," said Lillian, softly, as she gazed up the hill at Hogwarts.

Matt and Emily glanced up, too, and their breath caught in their lungs. The castle looked as beautiful as ever in the late-day sun. Even though there was a very faint mist hanging throughout the town and up to the castle, the broken clouds let a lot of sunlight stream in, so it held a certain beauty as well.

They saw the other forty-or-so Seaside students clumped together in the center of town, where Dr. Tavoularius lectured away on the brief history of Hogsmeade. They caught sight of the Hackers, standing with Ramirez and Xavier, and the new arrivals joined them as Lady Shandra moved to the front of the horde with Dr. T. She finished her tale on the legend of the Shrieking Shack and then glanced at her watch, whistling for quiet among the murmuring students.

"I always was bad at time zones. We're not late at all, and, in fact, we are here a bit earlier than expected; our visit to Hogwarts isn't supposed to start until about four o'clock, so you can do some shopping around here until then. Talk with the locals, ask questions, and try to enjoy yourselves. You will meet back here with your groups and we will walk up to the castle together. Have fun, everyone!"

The groups of students broke off. Most headed immediately for either the Three Broomsticks or Honeyduke's. Shailagh and Siyon walked over with Ramirez and Xavier, though the remaining Top Five moved immediately to Lady Shandra's side.

"Hey! Teruhiko!" came the call of a boy Matt didn't recognize.

"Uh… hey man, what's up?" replied Matt, hoping he sounded natural.

"Dude! Hog's Head! That drink you told us about? C'mon, man, where's your head?" chuckled a muscled Italian guy with spiked hair, punching Matt hard in the arm. "You've been talking about getting smashed off your face all week, we only got ninety minutes to do this, bro, let's go!"

"Teruhiko, don't you dare," snarled Emily. "Dr. T will skin you alive."

"T-take it easy, Nayoko," said Matt, cutting his eyes to her and trying to laugh naturally. "I'm sure it'll be fiiiine."

"Hell yeah man! Let's do this before Dr. T or the Psycho catches us, yeah?" he said, throwing an arm roughly around Matt's shoulders. Matt looked panicked, and started to be led away. Then Hurricane Siyon struck.

"You dare speak about our Headmistress that way?" she snarled, cutting off the Italian boy's route. "You, who are unworthy to hold a candle for Lady Shandra, stand before us, an over-tanned fetus with too much Mane-Elixir in that mess you call a hairstyle? Bite your tongue until it bleeds; you are unworthy of even our presence."

"Holy shit, dude, where'd you find this broad?" asked the Italian guy, taking a step back from the seething Siyon.

"Remove yourself from our sight, and don't even cast your gaze in our direction," said Siyon, her eyes narrowing to hate-filled squints.

"Jesus H Christ dude, someone control this bitch!" snarled Teruhiko's friend, crossing his arms and taking a step forward. "Before her pretty little face gets broken."

"Oh, and you think you're the 'man' to do it, huh? Well I—," Siyon stepped up to him, but, as the others really began to show signs of panic at the escalation, the bracing, yet dangerous, voice of Dr. T reached them.

"And just what is going on here, my darling students?" she simpered, throwing an arm around each Siyon and the Italian kid.

"Oh… uh… nothing much, Dr. T," said the Italian kid, hastily. "Teru and I were just gonna hang out with the boys and then she kinda flew off the handle at something I said—."

"They were plotting illicit activities, Dr. Tavoularius," piped up Emily.

"Now, Nayoko, that's quite _rude_ and _nobody_ likes a tattle-tale," said Dr. T, smiling and winking at her. "Now, then, Michael, why don't you run along and meet with your friends. Teruhiko earned a detention from Dr. Ching this week and that detention is going to be served today by being my personal shopping buddy. Just remember, we have a sample lecture at the castle this evening, and I hear the punishments here are rough. Don't get caught with anything… unbecoming… on your breath, okay?"

"You got it, Dr. T," said Michael with a wide grin as he snickered at Teruhiko, gave Siyon a wide berth, and sprinted to catch up with another group of guys further down the road.

"Siyon, I appreciate the effort, but try not to murder my students today, please?" said Dr. T, patting Siyon on the head.

"I didn't realize you even had that emotional range," said Matt, blinking and still looking panicked from the whole situation.

"I'm sorry," said Siyon, back to her demure, usual self. "It's… not a good time for me, you understand."

The girls all shared a sympathetic look. After a couple of moments of confusion, Matt and Ramirez's looks went from confused, then uncomfortable, and they shared a quick glance and shook their heads. Xavier, hands in his robe pockets, didn't seem to notice, nor care.

"Well, unfortunately for you, 'Teruhiko,'" said Dr. T, sighing. "It looks like you're going to have to accompany me today after all. I had hoped that nobody would have given you a second thought, seeing as you and 'Nayoko' should technically be in Tokyo right now…"

"So, Mom," said Ramirez. "How long have you wanted to actually say that to Nayoko, hmm?"

"Longer than you could ever imagine," replied his mother, smiling.

Matt-as-Teruhiko indeed became the pack mule of sorts for Dr. Tavoularius after that. By the end of their shopping time, Dr. T had him carrying a dozen bags and two boxes under each arm as she bought outfit after outfit for her friends and family back home. The others accompanied them at a safe distance, though none made any offer to actually help Matt. Finally, with twenty minutes until their meeting time, Dr. T led them to the Three Broomsticks, where many Seaside students had also ended up. As they entered, Lady Shandra approached them quickly, and made a large show of inviting them to sit with her and her Top Five.

"You Academy people really love your theatrics, huh?" commented Xavier, dryly.

"Well, at least with Lady Shandra, it's not that unexpected or unbelievable," said Shailagh.

"I said I was sorry," muttered Siyon.

"Nah, it's cool," said Xavier with a rare grin. "That bitch Torrentino needed to be brought down six pegs or so."

"Xavier, be nice," said Dr. T, as she procured a small bag with the flick of her wand. "Teruhiko, let me take those bags for you."

The bag she conjured seemed to have a number of extension and weight-nullifying charms on it, because the bags Matt had been holding fit successfully into the bag with no issues at all.

"What was the point of making me carry all this all day then?" he asked.

"Well you were being such a gentleman and not complaining about it, I didn't want to insult your manhood by taking that away from you," said Dr. T, with a look of mock surprise on her face.

"Thanks," said Matt, flatly, as the others around him laughed.

Once seated, they discussed the plan to get into the castle in more detail. After they entered, they would first attend two sample lessons, each taught by various staff members around the school. Following that would be a feast in the Great Hall and a tour/study session with a group of Hogwarts students.

"And I see you've both remembered to take your potions on the hour, too," said Lady Shandra, nodding in approval.

"One close call in Dervish and Banges was enough for me," said Emily, who had lost track of time and gotten blonde streaks in her hair before Ramirez hastily shoved her behind a shelf so she could take a quick gulp.

"Just remember not to allow Headmaster Snape to make direct eye contact with you for more than a couple of seconds. He is well versed in Legilimency, and even my enchantments may not hold up if he gets inside your minds," warned Lady Shandra, fixing them with a serious gaze. "And your tour will be the time you have to complete your missions, whatever they may be."

"Luckily for you all," chimed in Dr. T. "Most of the staff loved me when I subbed last year, so I was given free reign over which classes to assign you to, as well as which groups to put you in. So, you'll all be taking a Transfiguration and a Potions lesson."

As it was their respective best classes, Matt and Emily were thrilled about it. Xavier was the only one who seemed fairly against the whole thing, expressing a desire to take the Dark Arts class instead.

"Hogwarts doesn't have a—," began Emily.

"They do now," said Dr. T, grimly. "Headmaster Snape added the siblings of Alecto and Amycus Carrow to his staff, and they did away with Defense Against the Dark Arts and replaced it with Dark Arts. However, they didn't offer that as one of our choice courses, nor Muggle Studies. Not that I imagine anyone would have taken the latter, but still… the fact that it's not allowed worries me…"

"We should start our ascent," said Lady Shandra, rising slowly and pulling on her long, black cloak. "They are awaiting us."

Dr. T nodded seriously and took a deep breath before affixing a bright smile on her face, whistling for quiet in the Three Broomsticks. She ushered all the Seaside students out and back to their meeting place in the central part of town. From there, they began the long walk up the hill. Hogwarts was a much more impressive structure than the Seaside campus was, so nearly everyone craned their necks to get a good look at it. The towers grew taller and taller as they approached, until they finally reached the enormous gates that guarded the entrance to the castle. Standing on the other side, holding a lantern (which was quite unnecessary given that it was still late afternoon) was Argus Filch, the caretaker.

"Headmaster Snape has been expecting you," he said, wheezing as he spoke.

He took a set of keys and inserted them into various locks on his side, and, with a huge amount of metallic clicking, the gates slowly slid open. The Seaside students slowly began to walk through, chatting animatedly about various things, until it came to the group around Lady Shandra. The Top Five entered first, and Lady Shandra, holding her arms out slightly and looking quite focused on the castle ahead, stalked by with her head held high.

Matt and Emily could both feel a strange sensation as they stepped across the threshold of the grounds, a sort of light-headed tingling that resonated throughout their bodies. It only lasted a couple of seconds, but it made a shiver run up and down their spines. Filch hobbled ahead of the group as fast as he could as he lead them up the steep slopes of the castle, past Hagrid' Hut, the Greenhouses, and across the mighty bridge that spanned over the enormous, rocky moat in front of the castle.

"It's a beautiful place, Mr. Filch," said Dr. T, filling the silence only broken by three dozen pairs of feet on the wooden planks. "You keep it up quite well."

"Thanks," said Filch, caught off guard by the compliment. "And… er… your students seem well-behaved. I doubt I'll have to whip 'em."

He let out a wheezy laugh that made everyone's hairs stand on end. Some of the Seaside students threw horrified looks in his direction. Matt and Emily glanced at each other, aware that some of Umbridge's punishment tactics weren't quite gone from the halls of Hogwarts after all.

They finally walked into the enormous, and oddly silent, Entrance Hall. Standing on the large main staircase before them was Professor Snape, flanked by two oddly-shaped figures smiling horribly at them. When everyone assembled before them, he raised his arms in welcome, his smooth voice gliding them through a quick introduction.

"Welcome to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. My name is Severus Snape, and I am the Headmaster of this school. With me are Amycus and Alecto Carrow, my Deputy Heads. We hope you will make yourselves comfortable and at home with us in your extremely short time here," said Snape.

"It's good to see you again, Severus," said Dr. Tavoularius, walking forward to shake his hand. "I haven't seen you since I subbed for your Defense Against the Dark Arts class last year."

"Yes, it has been a while," replied Snape, with a curt nod. "It was a fair bit of work catching up with all that you taught while I was away, I can assure you of that."

"Oh I don't doubt it," said Dr. T, beaming. "I just hope you enjoyed the notes on your students I left for you."

"Of course," said Snape, with a curling lip. "We share similar notions on the prowess of students in the classroom, and how best we wish we could deal with them."

This sent an uneasy ripple through the Seaside students, especially Matt, Emily, and Lillian. They wondered what exactly Dr. T had said about them and their classmates in her time there. And, more unsettling, how had Snape agreed with it? The Headmaster looked towards where Matt and Emily's group stood, and another smile came to his face.

"And, it would appear, two of our old students have decided to return to us as well," he said.

Matt and Emily felt their blood run cold. Snape smirked and walked towards the group, as everyone glanced towards them. Dr. T glanced at them for a split second, terror in her eyes, before she refocused up to the Carrows, reattaching her smile and shaking their hands. Neither Matt nor Emily had looked Snape in the eye, yet they could feel their insides shaking as he parted the small sea of students coming toward them.

"Miss Sicily and Miss Hacker. Tell me, how have you faired since you left Hogwarts last?" he asked, coming to stop before them.

"Quite well, actually," replied Shailagh, with a respectful bow. "Lady Shandra's Academy has definitely shaped my abilities more than Hogwarts' Divination program would ever have been able to cater to."

"I don't doubt that," said Snape, derisively. "And you, Sicily?"

"I… I would say about the same," said Lillian, in a smile voice, her pimpled face flush with embarrassment. "I mean, I really do miss Hogwarts, but with Mom's new job we—."

"Professor Snape," said Lady Shandra, gliding over to them. "It is good to finally meet you in person. Josephine has told me much about you."

"And your own reputation far precedes you, Lady Shandra," said Snape, bowing his head to her. "Our own Sybil Trelawney speaks highly of you, and quite often I might add."

"That's flattering," said Lady Shandra. "Shall we begin with our scheduled lectures?"

"But of course," replied Snape, turning to speak to the group at large. "Those of you attending either Charms or Transfiguration for your first lesson, please follow Professor Amycus Carrow. Anyone going to Herbology or Care of Magical Creatures, Professor Alecto Carrow will be your guide. Astronomy and Ancient Runes, you will be with me."

The groups split off and Matt and Emily, still regaining their breath after Snape's close call, followed the lopsided Amycus up the stairs. Around them, their classmates talked excitedly about the paintings they saw along the way, intrigued by Hogwarts' changing staircases in the central tower, and jumping when the Fat Friar went through the walls in front of them, waving jovially as he continued on his journey straight through the other. All the while they walked, Amycus Carrow said nothing, barely looking at the students as they went. He looked more bored than anything.

"Transfiguration, you take the next two flights of stairs up and the first door on your right. Charms, this hallway and to your left. Don't bother trying the right door, it's locked. Any questions? No? Good, I'm off," said Amycus, stumping away as soon as he could.

"Well he was unfriendly," pointed out one of the girls in the Charms group.

"Yeah. Not to mention deformed," added Xavier as he started up the stairs with the other group.

"He's a Death Eater," said Shailagh in a low voice that only Matt, Emily, and Siyon could hear.

"I knew that already," said Emily. "We were warned about it when we talked with Jerome back at Seaside."

"At least everything seems to be going smoothly thus far," said Ramirez, checking his watch. "Emily, Matt, take a swig now to pre-empt this lecture. It should only last 45 minutes but we don't want to risk it, yeah?"

Matt and Emily carefully shielded by the others, did as they were told. Soon, they entered the old, familiar Transfiguration room. The pangs of nostalgia hit them again, and Matt and Emily had to restrain themselves from greeting Professor McGonagall airily and openly like Shailagh and Lillian did. After a few minutes, she stood before the class and held her wand aloft.

"As I'm sure you're all no doubt aware," she said, her voice more tired and strained than Matt and Emily had remembered. "Transfiguration is the equivalent of what most schools in America call Transmutation. It is among the most complex and dangerous of the magic all school-aged children learn, both at Hogwarts and at your home campuses. The major difference is that Hogwarts places more of an early emphasis on human Transfiguration than other schools, especially Seaside. While you all spend a better part of your Senior Year on it, we begin it very briefly in our 5th Year, touch more upon it in the 6th, and finish strongly with it early in 7th."

Professor McGonagall took most of her assigned period to lecture on some of the more basic elements of Transfiguration of human object, specifically focusing on appendages since they were easiest to fix when things didn't go according to plan. Matt and Emily had a hard time keeping their interest focused on the lesson; it was one they'd heard almost a year ago. They kept straining their necks, trying to get a peek out the windows to look on the castle grounds. This didn't go unnoticed towards the end of the period.

"Since you two seem so keen on not paying attention, perhaps you find this all beneath you?" asked McGonagall. "Your names, please?"

"Uh… us?" asked Matt as he and Emily looked forward, sweating.

"I don't believe I stuttered," replied McGonagall.

"Teruhiko Yakako," said Matt, standing.

"Nayoko Yakako," said Emily, leaping to her feet as well.

"It would appear it's genetic, then," said McGonagall. "Very well, then, can either of you perhaps transmute your hand into a lobster claw?"

"Of course," said Matt, forgetting himself for a moment and pointing his wand at his hand. With a pop, a large, red lobster claw appeared at the end of his hand, causing gasps to go around the room.

"Wow, Teruhiko, I had no idea you could do that," said a very-amused Ramirez, from directly behind him. "You were in Remedial Transmutation back at Seaside."

"I… was…?" said Matt, his eyes widening in horror as he realized what he'd done. "Oh. Haha… well… heh… without Crazy-eyed Laurenzi breathing down my neck, it's much easier."

"Oh, Agatha Laurenzi?" said McGonagall with a thin smile on her face. "She and I have been good friends for years. It's amusing you find me less terrifying than she. Now, Nayoko was it, how about you?"

Emily copied Matt's movements, but her lobster claw wasn't as fully formed as Matt's was, and another wave of small gasp went around the room.

"That's the first time Teruhiko's beaten Nayoko at magic," whispered a girl loudly from the other side of the room.

"It's not the first time," said Matt, angrily. "I beat her at plenty of different kinds of magic."

"Lies," replied Emily, ready to get into it. "You've never beaten me at anything magical in your life; don't talk such nonsense to me—."

"Okay, okay, that's enough," said McGonagall, waving her wand and changing Matt and Emily's arms back to normal. "Your second lesson will soon begin. Please go out and meet your escorts for the second session."

This time, they were met with students from Hogwarts, two Slytherin Prefects. Matt and Emily recognized the girl, Jo Hammet, the girl from the Intransigence Quidditch Team the year previous. Shailagh stepped forward and greeted her like an old friend, and the two chatted about their families and other topics as they descended staircase after staircase to the dungeons. Finally, once they reached the Potions room, Shailagh returned to the main group with a self-assured smile on her face. At the door, Professor Slunghorn beckoned them inside, loudly greeting anybody who looked even remotely familiar.

"So!" he practically shouted, clapping his hands together. "Potions. Well, you all are keenly aware that your Potions Master, Dr. Todd Baldwin, is a world-renown Alchemist and Potion-maker, responsible for some of the most recent advancements in physical and mental enhancement potions in the entire world. In his honor, I feel it only right for us to explore one of those potions today.

"I'm not much for lecturing, so, if you would, split yourselves into groups of two and stand by a cauldron. I've got the supplies laid out for you and we've got a little prize for anyone who finishes on time. Just don't let Dr. T know you have it when you get it," he finished, winking widely at them.

"Let's do this, Teruhiko," said Ramirez, throwing an arm around Matt's wider-than-usual shoulders. "We're gonna win this for sure."

"You've clearly never been in a Potions class with Ma-Teruhiko," said Emily, recovering quickly. "If you even leave with all your senses intact, it will be a miracle."

"She's right," said Matt, sheepishly. "I really do suck at Potions."

"I'm working with you, Nayoko," said Shailagh, to general astonishment.

"I thought you two hated each other?" said one boy, quizzically staring at them.

"Disagreement in principles can be overlooked in matters such as this," said Emily, pointing her nose upward. "I'd rather partner with someone I dislike than someone who is beneath my talents."

That earned her a disgusted look from everyone in the immediate area, and Matt had to bite his lip to keep himself from laughing. Even Ramirez and Xavier seemed amused, the latter partnering up with Siyon. Lillian and the quizzical boy who Emily-Nayoko had snubbed took the last cauldron the back, preparing to simmer.

"Everyone have a partner?" asked their professor, scanning the room. "Good. In that case, we will be doing a simple, but potent, mixture this evening. This is the Potion of Bull's Endurance, one of the most popular muscle enhancement potions available on the market."

"Teruhiko's no stranger to those," said Nayoko, loudly, causing laughter from half the class and a rude gesture from Matt.

"Now, now, settle down. You crazy American young people these days," said Slughorn with a hearty laugh. "Let's begin."

There was a rush of sound as everyone began to open their ingredients, measuring them into the right portions, cutting up things that needed cutting, and murmuring as everyone read through the complex directions. After a couple of moments, Shailagh knocked something off the table and both she and Emily knelt down to get it.

"I have good news. I know where to find that book, if it's anywhere inside the castle," said Shailagh, quietly.

"Excellent," replied Emily. "The odds of me getting into Gryffindor tower are slim enough as it is."

"I know that," said Shailagh. "Jo gave me the scoop, I'll explain at dinner…"

The class continued pretty normally. Slughorn meandered around the class, chatting with various students, making comments on their work. At last he arrived in the back, gazing into Ramirez's and Matt's cauldron. Despite Matt's protests, Ramirez had made him do quite a bit of work, so what should have been an orange-red potion was a sickly yellow-green instead.

"Oh my dear boys," said Slughorn, squeezing through the desks to get to them. "It seems as though you've made a couple of mistakes…"

"I'm really not sure how," said Matt, sighing and shaking his head. "I've read each direction three times over…"

"It's more than just getting the ingredients and mixing it," replied Slughorn, measuring a sample of something from his pocket into a small vial. "Otherwise, even Muggles could make Potions with no problem. You have to be able to channel your magic into it as well."

"Oh really?" said Matt, shocked. "I… never knew that. That may explain why I've been so awful at it all year…"

Slughorn poured the vial in and the color righted itself, but it wasn't the proper consistency. Still, it was a vast improvement over what it used to be. He moved on to Emily and Shailagh's next, commenting loudly on how Shailagh was already making a name for herself amongst the Diviners of the world. Then he commented on their potion.

"A superb example of what all the cauldrons in this room should look like!" he roared, clapping. "I can already tell who's going to win our special prize."

"It's mostly thanks to my friend here that this was possible," said Shailagh, modestly.

"Would you consider a transfer to Hogwarts, young lady?" asked Slughorn, shaking Emily's hand. "I lost my three best Potions students last year, the famous Harry Potter and his close friend Hermione Granger being two of them, and the third being… actually, you probably know her, the name was Emily Davis, and she transferred to Seaside. And your name is…?"

"Nayoko Yakako, sir," Emily said, beaming.

"Oh ho ho! Any relation to the famous Shinjiro Yakako, the man behind one of Japan's greatest hair-growth enchantments?" asked Slughorn, beaming.

"Uh…" Emily glanced around, but Shailagh came to her rescue.

"You'd be surprised how many people say that to her," said the psychic, quickly. "They're the daughter and son of Yoshi and Masami Yakako, Muggle-Wizard businessman and housewife, respectively. No relation to Shinjiro."

"Yeah, sorry," said Emily. "You'd think by now I'd be able to rattle that off without sounding like a snob."

"Hard for Nayoko to not sound like a snob," chimed in Matt. "She's a thousand times worse at home, too."

The class seemed to be enjoying the banter between the Yakakos, though Slughorn didn't allow it to continue much longer. Sure enough, at the end of the class, Emily and Shailagh had the best potion by a long shot. To their surprise, he handed each Shailagh and Emily a small bottle of a golden liquid, something Emily immediately identified as Felix Felicis.

"No wonder he doesn't want Dr. T to see us with this," said Emily when they followed Alecto Carrow back towards the Great Hall, later.

"Yeah, I'm not even sure you can import that into America without more than a few special forms," added Ramirez.

"This small amount wouldn't matter, but it's still definitely something we need to be careful with. Liquid Luck, as it's called," Shailagh added for Matt's benefit as he looked horribly confused. "It's not something so freely used and permitted by the universe. There has to be trade-offs for this luck you receive."

"You can't get something from nothing," muttered Siyon, holding her stomach. "I'm famished."

They entered the Great Hall and came upon the other Seaside students. By now, the Great Hall was mostly full. Matt and Emily quickly began to recognize faces. At the Ravenclaw table, they spotted most of Matt's old roommates and other friends from the house. As far from the staff table as possible, on the Hufflepuff side, the remaining Martine family members ate their dinner, heads hunched down.

"It's really empty in here…" commented Lillian. "Especially given that this is a mandatory feast…"

Matt and Emily hadn't noticed that before, but it was certainly true. The tables usually were packed to the brim, but now most seemed about three quarters full. Only Slytherin seemed close to its regular size. They didn't have long to think about it until Professor Snape came and split them up amongst the tables to eat.

Shailagh, Emily, Lillian, and Ramiez were placed at the Hufflepuff table, right next to Jose and Mateo Martine (who were thrilled to see Shailagh and Lillian again), while Matt, Siyon, and Xavier were sat at the Ravenclaw table, though not near anyone Matt recognized. After Snape made a quick speech announcing who the students were, the din in the hall rose to the proper Hogwarts volume, and Shailagh finally got a chance to talk to Emily.

"Remember the Room of Requirement you guys talked about using for practice in the D.A. two years ago?" asked Shailagh in a low voice.

"Of course," said Emily.

"Well apparently it changed its function. Now it's become mostly a room with which hidden treasures and lost objects are placed. Since Seth's book seems to have fallen out of your possession, it's probably there."

"Fantastic," replied Emily, excitedly. "When will we find out who our tour partners are?"

"I took a peek into that myself during the Potions lesson that I made you do the work in," said Shailagh, with a sly smile. "We're with a group of Ravenclaws from our year."

"Yes," said Emily, looking relieved. "So wait, does that mean your brother will be leading us?"

"No, unfortunately," said Shailagh, sighing. "He got himself in a bad detention the other day, and his face is a little cut up from it. They didn't want him, nor any other recently disciplined students, to be seen, so he's been banished to the Common Room for the night…"

"No way," replied Emily, her eyes widening in horror.

"That is why we cannot afford to get caught," Shailagh said. "Especially during this critical part of our visit. Lady Shandra can only do so much for us. We have to be careful."

"Yes, I agree and understand," said Emily, though as the time came closer for the tours to start, she became too nervous finish her meal. Across the hall, Matt had barely touched his food, nor talked with Siyon, Xavier, or any other Ravenclaws. Finally, the dinner came to a close, and the leaders of the tours came forward.

"We've given you about six or seven tour leaders per group, in an effort to answer any questions you might have. You have about ninety minutes to explore the castle before you will meet back here in the Entrance Hall with your chaperones for a prompt return to Seaside," said Professor Snape.

"And if you're late, I assure you the punishments will be severe," sang Professor T from her position between Lady Shandra and Professor Flitwick.

"You will find your assignments on the walls in the entrance hall. You are dismissed," said Snape, resuming his seat.

The Seaside students and their escorts left. The Entrance Hall was soon full of loud calls for different students, and it became virtually impossible for anyone to hear. Finally, a Ravenclaw Sixth Year held her wand aloft and the names of those in her group were spelled out above her head. Everyone else started to follow suit, when possible, and, slowly, the crowd thinned out.

"This way," said Shailagh, grabbing Matt and Nayoko's arms, taking them to where a group of blue-lined robes awaited them.

If nostalgic feelings had struck Matt before that moment, seeing his old roommates and friends from Ravenclaw really made his heart skip. Seven of his old friends stood before him: Blaine Carlson, Terry Boot, the Smith twins Nathaniel and Rachel, Mandy Brocklehurts, Melody Moon, and Lisa Turpin smiled politely at them. It was all he could do to stop himself from running up and embracing everyone, as Shailagh took care of the introductions of the ones they didn't recognize.

"It's a pleasure to be your guides through the halls of Hogwarts today," said Mandy, stepping forward. They noticed that, in her arms, she cradled a bundle of extra Ravenclaw robes. "Professor Snape has asked us to give each of you an honorary house robe and, since we're all Ravenclaws, we will make you honorary Ravenclaws as well."

Matt, Emily, the Tavoularius brothers, the Hackers, and Lillian each took a robe, though Lillian and Shailagh expressed amusement at being given a second house robe. Emily felt the same way, but knew saying anything would be a poor choice since she was still under the persona of Nayoko.

"Shall we begin the tour, then?" asked Rachel Smith, kindly. "Ask us any questions you have. We're going to head to our Library first, followed by a visit to one of the tallest towers, so you can get a proper view of the surrounding grounds at sunset."

Each of the Ravenclaws partnered up with one of the newcomers. Matt found himself walking next to Nathaniel Smith, while Emily was personally escorted by Mandy. They ascended the stairs as the Ravenclaws took turns giving a sentence or two on various staircases, paintings, or doors, explaining their memories of the castle and where they went. At first, they were near a couple of other groups, but after they reached the fourth floor, they broke off and entered a solitary, deserted corridor.

"I think that's far enough," said Shailagh suddenly. "_Specialis Revelio_."

The Ravenclaws cut-off mid speech and stood quietly for a moment. The coast was clear; nothing was revealed. Siyon, too, said that she didn't sense any negative energy, and that they were safe.

"Okay, so, don't freak out everyone," said Shailagh. "But Nayoko and Teruhiko aren't actually who they say they are."

"What?" asked Lisa, tilting her head to the side.

"It's Matt, actually. Matt Warren," said Matt with a wide smile. "Good to see y'all again."

"And I'm actually Emily in Japanese form," said Emily, with a grin. "Give it like ten minutes and our potion would wear off."

The Ravenclaws screamed and hugged Matt and Emily, practically dissolving into tears on the girls' end and laughter on the boys' end. Once everyone had calmed down, Shailagh removed her wand and pointed it to the inside of her robes, focusing for a moment. She smiled at her handiwork a second later.

"Jose and Mateo will meet us in front of the seventh floor in a few minutes," said Shailagh. "Did you all bring your own spare robes like I asked you to?"

The Ravenclaws nodded and removed their outer robes, revealing that they were in fact wearing two robes each. Shailagh nodded and, with Siyon's help, collected the robes. They knelt down and held open the left side of each robe before them.

"Hermione Granger's D.A. coins gave me the idea for this," said Shailagh. "A Protean Charm on everyone's robes. That way, we can communicate. The threads near the left-side pocket will rearrange to spell out messages that we send."

"Nice thought, Shailagh," said Blaine, grinning.

"She's a brilliant girl, isn't she?" said Ramirez, chuckling. Shailagh's cheeks turned pink as she muttered, "_Proteus_."

"In the meantime, what we need from you guys is a small object. It doesn't have to be anything important, it's just so we can also see at times what is going on around you," said Siyon. "We want to keep an eye out at Hogwarts for various things."

"Namely the McGuires?" suggested Melody, her face angry. "They're gonna pay for what they did to you all."

"That's correct, and that's also why I asked you to take us by that Room on the Seventh floor," said Shailagh as she finished with the last charm. "Emily, Siyon, and I will go in and try and find that book."

"How did you know it even existed?" asked Rachel.

"Do you all remember Jo Hammet, from Slytherin?" asked Shailagh. "Nice girl, really. She and I have been talking all summer, and she mentioned that she heard it from Vincent Crabbe, that goon who follows Draco Malfoy around."

"I hate that little bitch Malfoy," snarled Nathaniel, suddenly. "I'd bash his head in if I could."

"Yeah, we all feel that way man…" said Blaine, bracingly. "So anyway, what's the plan for us in the meanwhile?"

"Catch up with Matt and tell him what's been going on around Hogwarts. We still need to go through the Library first in case Snape or the Carrows asks about it in the future," said Shailagh, handing back everyone's robes and taking the requested objects from them in return.

"Let's get moving, then," said Mandy, taking charge again. "Our time is already going by fast."

They resumed the tour, seeing both the Charms department and the Library on their way to the Seventh Floor. They crossed a group of Gryffindor students touring with more Seniors (Mike Torrentino tried to shanghai Matt for his group until he spotted Siyon on his left), and the Grey Lady, who stopped briefly to answer a couple of questions Xavier had about being dead. Finally, with only forty-five minutes until the meeting time, they reached the proper corridor.

"Now, I don't know exactly how to operate the Room itself anymore," said Shailagh, sheepishly. "I missed out on the D.A. so someone else will-."  
"I've got it," said Emily, walking forward. She passed the blank wall each time, thinking, _I need the room where the lost objects are kept. Where Seth's book will be_. On her third pass, the door materialized to the quick cheers of the Ravenclaws. Emily smiled, taking a quick swig of her Polyjuice Potion and nearly vomiting.

"Let's get this over with," she said, opening the door and walking in.

She, Shailagh, and Siyon were immediately blown away by the sheer size of the room. The general cluttering of all the objects set off Emily's OCD and really stressed her out. Siyon and Shailagh both raised their wands, but neither of their Summoning or Revealing Charms worked.

"Gotta do it the hard way, then," Shailagh muttered with a sigh. "Okay. Emily, what was the author of the book called?"

"Stefan Kart," said Emily. "That's all I can remember about it."

"There's a huge stack of books over this way," said Siyon, walking carefully around the piles of objects. "Let's start here, Emily."

"That works well. I'll start searching around over here," said Shailagh. "I've got my own mission to think about, after all."

Emily nodded and she and Siyon headed towards a row of books stacked well above their heads. They worked in silence, tracing their fingers over the dusty, rough spines of the books.

Back outside the Room of Requirement, the Ravenclaws and Matt caught up on different topics while Xavier stood a little bit further down the hallway, keeping watch. Things were fairly light and airy at first, small talk about Melody and Jack's wedding and married life dominating most of the conversation, but then Matt asked about the other missing Ravenclaws. That's when the air of conversation took a big turn.

"Well, you already know Jack got his ass beat in class," said Nathaniel. "Padma simply refused to go because Parvati also got herself injured via detention last week… and… Dakota is missing."

"Missing? Like… at Hogwarts missing?" asked Matt, his heart sinking.

"No… we haven't seen him all year," said Lisa, with a heavy sigh. "His whole family is gone. We don't know if they fled the country or if they're just in hiding… or worse… Grandma said that one of his uncles was recently taken in by the Ministry for questioning… but I don't know what came of that…"

Matt was quiet for a bit, looking out onto the grounds and towards the setting sun. The thought of someone who used to be so close to him being a victim of this madness with Lord Voldemort seemed unreal, given that they still had to deal with the McGuires having a personal vendetta for them.

"And he's not the only one," muttered Mandy, darkly.

"Yeah," added Rachel. "Most of the people missing from Hogwarts now-a-days are either in hiding, fled from the country, incarcerated, or dead. It's awful."

"Parvati and Padma are waiting until Christmas to get out of here," said Blaine in a low voice. "They want to get out of England as soon as possible. Luckily they've got family in India who are going to give them a place to stay."

"And Mom and Dad are trying to find a way to get us out, but it's really complicated because of Dad's business," said Melody. "And Mom doesn't want to leave her friends."

"That's awful… I mean, I wish you could all come to like Seaside and just stay there, but I don't know what to do about your families…" Matt muttered. "I hate to ask this… do you know anyone who's died?"

"It's hard to have 100% confirmation," replied Nathaniel. "So far the only reported person from our Year is Sally-Anne Perks, a Hufflepuff… she was killed with her family during an attempt to flee Death Eaters in September. It's strongly rumored that Justin Finch-Fletchley is dead, but he's 'officially' listed as missing… but that's all I can think of from our Year."

"Then from the Inter-House Quidditch League, two of Helga's Hell-Raisers are confirmed dead," said Rachel. "Moe Morrison and Horace Putney both got killed, and I know James Hendricks, from Almighty, is missing."

"And almost everyone else is in hiding in Adrianna's family's compound," said Melody.

"Her compound?" asked Matt.

"Yeah. The Reynolds family has a huge estate in the western part of the country," explained Melody. "When the Ministry fell, she organized a lot of people's escape to it. It's been rendered Unplottable and has only Adrianna and her parents as secret-keepers. It's absolutely impossible for us to find."

"That's really awesome of them, though," Matt said. "Risking everything for some of the people that she played Quidditch with."

"Yeah, I think there's something like eighty people living there now," said Lisa. "Grandma is one of the few people they trust, so she is one of the people that get them medical supplies and the like."

"Everyone from Intransigence, except Jo, is there, along with their families. Same goes for Flower Power and the other non-Slytherin teams that didn't already have people flee or go into hiding on their own," added Mandy.

"That's good to know, though," said Matt. "But it blows that it has to come to this…"

"Yeah…" replied the Ravenclaws, their eyes downcast.

Xavier, who had been staring vapidly at a tapestry previously, suddenly whirled around. The Ravenclaws and Matt watched as he glanced around the corner, turned and rushed back towards them.

"What's going on Xavier?" asked Matt.

"Someone's coming," replied Xavier. "I think it's a Callow."

"Oh shit we're supposed to have you back downstairs in two minutes," cursed Blaine. "We've gotta get them out of the Room of Requirement."

"We can't all go in there now," hissed Mandy. "If it's Alecto, we'll get detention, and if it's Amycus we'll just get Crucio-ed right here."

"And if he or she sees the door…" gasped Rachel.

"I'll go in and let them know what's going on," said Melody, striding forward. "You guys get going. Now."

"Right…" said the Ravenclaws, rushing down the opposite side of the corridor. They glanced back in time to see the door close behind them, morphing back into the wall, as a stumpy, lopsided figure burst around the other side, wand raised.

"Halt!" came the gruff yell. It was Amycus.

"Any luck?" came the distant call of Shailagh.

"Nothing yet," Emily yelled back. Her eyes were burning because she kept forgetting to blink as she ran her sight over every single book.

"This is getting hopeless," said Siyon. "There's so many books in this room… some of which haven't been touched since the early 15th century…"

"I wonder why they're all here," said Emily. "It's not like they're ordered by date, either."

Siyon sighed in agreement and kept moving forward. Emily came to a particularly lopsided stack and hung back, running her hands over each one. She kept thinking to herself about how she needed to find the book, hoping the room would respond to her need, but it resolutely seemed to hold on to its objects. Then, at the bottom of the stack, hidden to the point that she almost missed it, she saw the book.

"I've got it…" she muttered, grabbing it. It was weighed down, so she took out her wand and levitated the books up above it, carefully wrenching it out from the pile. The book felt heavier than she remembered as she stared at the dark cover, a swath of blue in the bottom left corner. The book Seth had given her two years ago.

Emily turned to find Siyon, but she suddenly felt the book move in her hands. She glanced down and gasped as a black cloud seemed to be emanating from it. She tried to put it down, but it had attached itself to her skin, and it was beginning to burn. She tried to call for either of the Hackers, but suddenly found her voice and throat constricted. She tried to stumble forward, but she felt paralyzed completely by the book.

"Emily?"

Siyon had returned, cradling a book of her own, her eyes wider than Emily had ever seen them. She quickly took up her wand and pointed it at Emily, muttering a complex incantation under her breath. Emily's other hand suddenly began to glow white and hot, and the light spread all throughout her body, releasing each muscle it crossed with from the effects of the paralysis. When it finally crossed to her other side, she realized that she hadn't been breathing for almost a minute, and began to gasp, nearly collapsing as it began to go down her left arm, towards, the now heavily-smoking book.

"Shailagh!" screamed Siyon, interrupting her counter-hex momentarily. "Help!"

Right on cue, Shailagh came sprinting around the corner of the pile of books, her wand raised. She fired a bolt of something that collided with the back of Emily's hand, smashing it like a sledgehammer, making her scream and fall to the ground. Thankfully, the book also fell. The Hacker cousins turned their wands on it, white light shooting from both of their wands into the book. The black cloud continued to pour out of it until it disappeared in a brilliant flash of white light. The book flopped open, torn and broken on the ground.

"What the hell was that?" asked Emily, massaging her aching hand.

"Welcome to the world of cursed, dark objects," said Shailagh, kneeling down to fix her hand. "Thankfully located right next to the world of Shailagh's AP Healing Magic ability."

"Both worlds are rather unpleasant, really," said Siyon, back to her stoic nature as she ran her wand over the book. "Thankfully that was the only curse. It's safe to handle now."

"How did he…" Emily muttered, imaging Seth sneaking into her room, cursing the book, and hiding it there for her to find.

"A number of ways, each more vile than the next," said Shailagh. "Anyway, we've got your book and our time is ending… I don't think I can finish my mission in the end… so… shall we get out of here?"

They only made it a few feet back towards the door when Melody burst through it. The girls jumped back from her as she put a finger to her lips.

"Carrow's out there," she whispered. "Everyone else ran for it."

"Son of a…" muttered Emily, taking out her wand. "Did he see the door?"

"I don't think he noticed… he probably stumped by already," Melody muttered, angrily. "Let's give it a few moments before we leave."

"Yeah," agreed Shailagh. "We can't get caught now…"

The girls waited in silence, Emily still massaging her hand. Shailagh had managed to fix whatever damager her curse had done, but it still ached with the memory of the pain. The book, safely tucked in her bag, still worried her. Shailagh brought Melody up to speed on what had happened, the latter explaining what they'd been talking about outside.

"Adrianna Reynolds' compound… I wonder if we could find it," muttered Siyon.

"Unplottable. No way in hell," said Melody.

"By conventional means, anyway," said Shailagh, also looking thoughtful.

"I think we're safe now," said Emily, walking towards the door. She took the last bit of her Polyjuice Potion and carefully opened the door.

The hallway had changed completely. There was a new window that hadn't existed before, as well as a vast array of different-colored tapestries. The denizens watched in silent amusement as the four girls stepped into the hallway, one much narrower than they'd entered in. Melody glanced around, frowning, and then snapped her fingers.

"We're near Ancient Runes now," she said. "I guess the Room of Requirement spit us back out somewhere safe. Let's get going, we have to get downstairs and get you guys back with your groups."

"I hope the others made it safely…" muttered Emily, hoping Matt wouldn't get them caught and screw everything up at the last second.

The Ravenclaws, Matt, and Xavier sprinted through a tapestry on the sixth floor, the uneven footsteps and wheezing screeches of Amycus Carrow still well within earshot. Matt was thankful for Teruhiko's physique because he was able to keep the sprint up for much longer than he would have been able to in his own body, but Lisa and Rachel were both quickly losing their stamina. Finally, they both doubled over with side stitches.

"I can't do this anymore," muttered Lisa. "You guys should just keep going; we'll come up with something."

"No, it won't work because Snape will demand to know where you guys are," said Mandy, looking around frantically. "This is just perfect…"

"Why don't we just stun him when he comes flying out of that tapestry we just ran through?" asked Xavier, raising his wand. "He can't do anything if he can't remember us."

"Yes, Stun the Death Eater. Brilliant idea," said Nathaniel, sarcastically. "They won't suspect a thing then."

"Wait, I have a better idea," said Matt, smiling and taking out his wand. "Someone pull the shades on all the windows. It's time for _Lumos Solarum_ to make a reappearance."

"Snape knows that's your main attack, Matt," came a new voice. "Let us handle this."

Jose and Mateo had finally arrived, Mateo with a fresh cut on his face and Jose with a black eye. The Ravenclaws gasped and Matt ran over to embrace his friends quickly. They heard the wheezing grow even louder; they only had a couple of seconds to pull of whatever plan they had.

"Don't ask about this," said Jose, pointing to their injuries. "Just get out of here. Weasley's Wizard Wheezes to the rescue."

"One Portable Swamp in five seconds," said Mateo.

They didn't need telling twice. The friends practically dove into the next stairwell as they heard a surprised scream in the hall behind them, followed by a sickening-sounding rush of water. The bubbling, disgusting water poured in behind them on the stairwell, and they just stayed in front of it as they headed up and across to a shortcut Nathaniel knew through the castle.

"Please make sure they're okay," said Matt to his friends as they finally reached the Entrance Hall, Lisa and Rachel all but collapsing.

"Yeah man, definitely," said Nathaniel, shaking his hand. Blaine and the girls all followed suit as Matt and Xavier ran downstairs slightly ahead of them. They saw the Hackers and Emily-Nayoko standing near the center of the group, under Lady Shandra's watchful eye. Matt and Xavier felt those eyes sear through them momentarily as Dr. T finished counting everyone and doing a final roll-call.

"Well, Professor Snape, we appreciate you taking time out of the busy weekend to give us a chance to experience a real castle. Hopefully we can have some of your best and brightest visit Seaside," said Dr. T, shaking his hand as she put on her traveling robe.

"We shall see," said Snape, casting a glance around the castle. His eyes stopped at the group that included Matt and Emily again, but he didn't say anything and was promptly intercepted by Lady Shandra for her usual theatrical good-bye.

They all began to troop out the large, wooden doors when they saw Alecto Carrow come flying down the stairs. She ran immediately to Snape and, from her furious gesturing, seemed to be telling him about what had happened to her brother. Snape looked back to the group of Seasiders, his eyes narrowed in suspicion, but he didn't say anything and shooed Alecto off as he swept up the stairs, past the winded Ravenclaws. They waved forlornly at the group as the Americans stepped out into the darkening grounds of Hogwarts, heading back down towards Hogsmeade.

"We will have to use our Portkeys very shortly, everyone, because there is a curfew in place in Hogsmeade Village. If you need to do any last-minute business before our return to Seaside, I suggest you do it now," said Dr. T.

Matt and Emily gathered around their friends, Matt's arm shaking as his skin started to lose its tan color. He noticed Emily's hair was beginning to form slight blonde streaks again, and they watched each other in horror as their heights began to change. Luckily, at that moment, the Portkeys kicked in, and they were whisked back through time and space, across half the planet, hitting the ground hard in Seaside a few seconds later.

"Okay, everyone," Dr. Tavoularius was immediately all-business. "Please follow me; I want to get the post-trip paperwork done as soon as possible so that I can release you for your weekend!"

The group of students tramped up towards the central building, though Matt and Emily were absolutely terrified as they were now almost fully back to their normal selves, but wearing Nayoko and Teruhiko's clothing. Just before they entered the cafeteria, they heard a forced whisper and saw one of the Top Five, bright-eyed Judith, standing off to the side, beckoning them towards her. They broke off from the group and followed her into a side room.

"Shailagh and Nico are quite good at their Illusion magic," she commented, smiling. "I don't think anybody noticed the potion wearing off of you."

Matt glanced at Emily and watched as she went form a fully-formed Nayoko immediately back into blonde, pale Emily. The look on her face told him a similar change had occurred to him, but he hadn't felt anything. The door opened again and Shailagh, Siyon, and Nico entered, each breathing heavily.

"That was too close," said Shailagh, practically collapsing in spare chair by the wall.

"Yes," said Nico, wiping sweat from his forehead. "But at least nobody missed a beat on that."

"Now we just have to wait for the memory modifications to be complete, and we'll be able to go home," said Judith, smiling.

"Memory modifications?" asked Matt and Emily at the same time.

"Yeah, everyone's going to have to undergo a slight memory charm, to make them forget that you guys went to Hogwarts," said Shailagh, matter-of-factly. "Seeing as the other half of the people on the trip are going to have vivid memories of you in Tokyo."

"Isn't that… horridly illegal?" asked Emily.

"So?" asked the Lady Shandra students.

Matt and Emily shared a side glance at each other. When they were breaking laws on their own, for their own sake… that was fine. But when others started getting involved…

"It's for their protection, anyway," said Judith.

"If anyone ever found out what we did, they might try and get answers from them," said Nico. "If that's the case, we want to be absolutely sure your position can't be compromised."

"I mean, let's face it, if they were tortured enough it could break the charm," said Siyon.

"But the odds of them being able to do that are miniscule, given the A.W.A. monitoring," said Shailagh, shooting her cousin an irritated look. "Anything sneaky and small wouldn't cause any harm."

"You may be right… I still don't like it," Matt said, thinking of all the other students at Seaside and wondering what would happen if they were put in danger.

"After what happened to Salem, I don't want to see a repeat to anyone here," said Emily.

"Dr. T would never allow it," said Shailagh. "It is almost time for us to return to the Academy. We will begin our examinations of what you have collected for us and let you know of our findings in the near fuure."

Emily handed over the book and she and Matt watched as the members of the Top Five rejoined the Lady Shandra group a few minutes later. Lady Shandra shot them a brief, serious look, but gave them the smallest of nods; everything had been a success. Though it was still early, the students headed back onto the grounds and grouped around a Portkey for their return to the east coast, while Matt and Emily headed into the dining hall to rejoin the other Seaside students for their own paperwork and catching up. As they took seats near Ramirez and Xavier, they felt their insides shivering as, one by one, each student turned in their paperwork to Dr. T and entered a small side room to the right to unknowingly have their memories modified.

**Author's Note:**

**Now that I'm gradumutated and all that jazz, I should have more time for writing. And I want to get this story finished so that I can close out my Trilogy of Harry Potter self-insert fiction. I hope you enjoy it, even if it's more self-serving and not probably too fascinating a read for anyone but me and people I know personally!**


	5. Chapter 5

**Author's Note:**

**Though it's taken two months, I really did enjoy writing this chapter. It also gave me a lot of ideas on where I'm going with it from here. Please enjoy Chapter 5!**

Chapter Five: Special Deliveries

In the weeks following the trip to Hogwarts, Matt and Emily couldn't shake the feeling that, at any moment, Snape was going to come flying into Seaside, wand blazing, destroying the buildings and cutting them down for sneaking in and out of Hogwarts right under his nose. But as October came and went, along with the least eventful Halloween the two had had since Muggle High School, those feelings of terror dulled. The Protean-charmed Hogwarts robes they had also kept them well up to date on things going on inside the castle. It was like a strange message board; the inside of the robes would often be covered with azure-colored threads spelling out greetings, warnings, and stories from their companions at Hogwarts.

They learned that Mateo and Jose had, somehow, managed to avoid being detected by Amycus, as he was too busy drowning in the sludge to see who had dropped the swamp. For a week after, the school was locked down and the planned Hogsmeade weekend had been cancelled, but nobody ever confessed. According to Mandy, Snape finally lifted most of the lock downs and things returned to the usual level of misery at Hogwarts.

They caught up their Japan-trip friends about the trip as well. Nayoko, as expected, was displeased at how Emily behaved in her persona, though Teruhiko was in hysterics as Matt recounted the disaster in Potions, as well as the faux pas of decent performance in Transfiguration.

To their surprise, Dr. T never met with them after the trip to discuss anything. Nor did they hear from Shailagh or Siyon for the remainder of the month. The only things Matt and Emily had to worry about were the demanding schoolwork and their special Modern Magic sessions with Lyle.

In the second of these sessions, he explained more about the manipulation of magical energy as a force, rather than as a human characteristic. The concept, while opposite of what they'd been taught previously, wasn't too difficult for Matt and Emily to grasp, and, in fact, it answered a couple of other questions they had about magical interference with technology and other sorts of things, but they were still unable to perform the same type of magic they had performed the year previous during the attack on Hogwarts.

"So those apparently odd spells you performed… what was your motivation, your thought process in doing it?" Lyle asked as he sat on the edge of his desk, his legs kicking back and forth.

"I… well, for me it was more of a dyslexic accident than anything," Matt said, sheepishly. "It's this spell thing from this video game I played…"

"Oh! Muggle video games… a fascinating area for inspiration…" said Lyle, leaping from his desk, summoning a quill and ink bottle as he went. "I know just who would be able to perform a fantastic study about that…"

Emily glanced at Matt, whose mouth was hanging open, the end of his sentence struck dead on his lips.

"I've played similar games,' explained Emily. "Once he had done it, I thought about some of the spells myself, and I could also cast certain spells like that. As dumb as it sounds…"

"On the contrary!" squealed Lyle, splattering ink all over his robes as he swirled around the look at them. "It's fantastic! A brilliant starting point! Please, when you get a spare moment, recall every spell, its effects, and how you called forth the power to do it! Our next lesson, we'll try and recreate the spells."

The informal lesson was cut short at that point because Lyle was literally too excited to continue lecturing. Bemused, Matt and Emily spent a few minutes trying to remember the random spells they'd sent flying, and then returned to their dorms to work on their respective remedial classes. It was as though Heckendora and Goldstein had conspired to give ridiculously enormous busy-work assignments out in celebration of the end of October.

Exhausted from staying up late to complete the assignments two nights in a row, coupled with a brutal early-morning Dueling class, Emily found her mind shutting down halfway through Academic Healing the following Friday morning. Dr. Ching zeroed in on the sleepy blonde and was just beginning to fire a bunch of demanding questions on the most recent reading when the door opened and Teruhiko Yakako strode in.

"Hey, Teach," said Teruhiko, walking between Dr. Ching and the class. "Dr. T wants me to join this class."

"What?" snapped Dr. Ching. "You're in Remedial Healing."

"Not anymore, apparently," said Teruhiko, rolling his eyes. "Our dear principal wants me to 'apply myself' a little more or some shit. So I had to either switch into Academic Healing or Academic Transmutation and, to your credit, you're much less terrifying than Laurenzi. So, here I am!"

Dr. Ching didn't seem to catch the entire explanation, but he did wave Teruhiko away from him. The muscle-bound teen wandered halfway back and took a seat next to Emily, smirking and immediately leaning in to chat.

"I love how pissed he gets when he sees one of us," he whispered. "I don't think he's gonna even look our way most of the time."

"Thank God for that," muttered Emily, yawning widely. "I feel like death."

"So where are we here?" asked Teruhiko, glancing at Emily's notebook.

Emily glanced back through her notes. It was a mess of story fragments, doodles, and shaky notes with long lines through them where she had nodded off in the middle of writing some detail of Dr. Ching's rambling lectures. She glanced to Teruhiko, shrugged, and put her head down on her desk as the eldest Yakako chuckled silently.

It wasn't only Heckendora, Goldstein, or Ching increasing the workload, either. In almost every class, the seniors received similar announcements from their professors. For the most part, lecture was over. The remainder of the school year was going to be nearly exclusively devoted to practical applications and examinations. Since many were about to enter the job markets of the wizarding world, they had to get as much practice now as they possibly could.

This was a relief to many students, nobody more than Emily. The nonsense busywork was quickly driving her over the edge. If she had to defend one more theory of Transmutative properties of elbows or outline the feeding habits of the doxy again, she felt she might snap. Matt, likewise, was busy enough keeping his Tarot project up to date and written, to be worried about writing other reports and essays There was a reading that he especially paid attention to one night in early November.

"Queen of Swords…" he muttered, scribbling it into his notes. "Crossed with… King of Swords… hm. The basis… Five of Pentacles…? Okay so short term… Ace of Cups… and long term… Four of Wands? Wait a minute…"

For some reason, the reading and the spread laid out before him seemed to be calling to him. He already had a suspicion as to why. The moment he saw the Queen of Swords, he thought of Emily. But the rest of it was the part that didn't make sense to him. Who was the King supposed to represent? Some man in uniform, connected to the government…? Dr. T's husband maybe? No, that didn't make sense in the context of the remaining cards calling for a new relationship of sorts… yet the basis, of a temporary hardship and guarding against some sort of loss… that really bothered him.

"I'm no Shailagh, of course," said Ramirez when Matt showed him and Emily his findings. "But you seem to be reading it right."

"It's funny you thought of me first," said Emily, smiling. "But I'm not sure how any of this really relates to me. There's others who this can easily apply to."

"And doesn't the Four of Wands usually mean marriage…?" asked Ramirez.

"Hah!" Emily chuckled. "Yeah. Probably not me then."

"Maybe you're right. I'm probably just looking for a more connected meaning," said Matt, grinning. "I'll just forget about it for now."

He made a mental note to try and ask Shailagh about it when he got a chance. Unfortunately, a few days of classes pushed it right out of his mind as the practical applications started to train him both physically and mentally. By Friday night, Matt was so exhausted that he could barely make it to Summoning, stumbling in just as Lyle finished peppering the walls with moving scrolls.

"Cutting it close huh?" Emily joked as Matt collapsed into a seat next to her.

"I can't feel my life," Matt replied. "I'm so tired."

"Well you shouldn't have taken 13 classes," Emily said. "You're bringing this misery on yourself."

"Don't need to hear that from you, thanks," snapped Matt, quietly.

"Good evening my wonderful students! Or at least those of you who remain!" Lyle said, smiling.

They were only down to six students now. Matt, Emily, Ramirez, Toshio, and two other Seaside students, both of whom looked even sleepier than Matt. Throughout the weeks of Lyle's long, unending speeches, many had felt that their Friday nights were better spent in other pursuits, rather than experimental magic. But, Lyle said that they were finally ready to begin their first bits of Summoning.

"Now that you have all seemed to grasp the original theories of Summoning, it's time we put it into practice," said Lyle, grinning and swinging his legs back and forth. "Now, what you must understand, is that we won't be practicing this on each other, because it is almost asininely difficult to Summon a human being, requiring complete and total focus, and trust.

"That's one of the main reasons we're starting with animals this evening," Lyle explained, producing a box from behind his desk. "What we have here are several newly hatched chickens. Before we begin, who remembers the main thing to keep in mind with a summoning pact?"

Toshio raised his hand first. "In order for one to call another living thing across time and space, there must be total and complete acceptance and trust. Also, a physical connection of some sort can be used for an ideal bridge."

"Excellent explanation, Toshio!" exclaimed Lyle, grinning. "That is absolutely correct. So, what you need to do is spend some time bonding with these chicks. Take a feather from each one as well. Feed it and allow it to bond and accept you as its surrogate parent. In about an hour and a half, we will attempt to summon the animals."

He passed out the chickens one-by-one and everyone did what they were told. After feeding and holding the chirping babies in their arms for a few minutes, the seniors all broke off and wandered around the room. Emily read a book as her chick hopped between the pages, chirping happily. Matt and his new bird slept against a window, their light snores flying around the room. Ramirez and Toshio played a game with their chicks, allowing them to stumble around Ramirez's desk with each other, each chirping madly as they bounced off each other and books.

"Okay, everyone, that should be enough time," said Lyle. "Now, as we try this, I want you to place your chick into a box at the back of the room. We're going to then have you move to the front of the room, holding that feather. When I say so, you are to attempt to call forth that chick, much in the same way you would Conjure one."

"Professor," one of the other girls asked. "If we don't do it right, will the chick be hurt at all?"

"Don't worry," said Lyle. "Summoning isn't exactly like Disapparating, so you won't splinch or hurt anything that is summoned. Or, at least, that's what the research shows, though I'd be lying if I said I'd ever managed to summon anything larger than a skunk."

"So you have Summoned things before, then?" Ramirez asked, scooping up his chick.

"Yep! On a regular basis, really. Insects and small birds are the easiest, but I've Summoned several of my cats as well. For some reason, I can't get my dog or horses to come forth, but my hope is that by studying all of you we can do this properly!" Lyle said. "Why don't you go first, Mr. Tavoularius?"

"Of course," said Ramirez, setting his chick in the box and walking to the front of the room.

"Now, as you're aware, there's not much in the way of a traditional incantation," said Lyle. "Which is perfectly fine; I find them to be obsolete and limiting. Summoning is also best done silently because it is a connection between you and the being that you are summoning. Making it a verbal spell can allow for interference."

"When you say interference..." Matt said. "Do you mean like someone interrupting the spell or stealing the Summoned being as it comes forth?"

"A fascinating question," said Lyle. "I was, of course, referring more to simply the interruption, but the thought of someone stopping or stealing a Summon…"

He conjured a parchment and quill and began to scribble something down. The class waited for almost a full minute before Emily cleared her throat loudly. Lyle looked up, seeming genuinely surprised that everyone was watching him, and then they saw it dawn on him.

"Oh! My apologies, class, I lost myself for a moment. Ramirez, if you would?" Lyle said, setting his stuff down on an already heavily-laden desk.

"Right," said Ramirez.

He held the feather in his right hand and pointed his wand at it. He took a deep breath and closed his eyes. He started to mouth something, apparently over and over, trying to get a rhythm. After half a minute, he brought his wand up and then, with a twirling motion, back down toward his hand. There was a loud pop and a flash of light, and a small chick hopped around in his hand, chirping. The class gasped and Toshio clapped. Lyle smiled, but didn't immediately praise him.

"Emily, check the box, please," said Lyle.

Emily put her chick up on her shoulder and walked over to the box. She peered inside and saw, to her surprise, that the chick was still in there, peering up curiously at her.

"It's still here…" she said.

"As I thought," said Lyle, walking over to examine the chick hopping around in Ramirez's hand. "A very good try, Ramirez, but it seems that you Conjured this chick, rather than Summoning the other one. If I were to examine it, I'm certain we would find that it has no soul."

"Darn, I thought that felt a little too easy," said Ramirez, shrugging and Vanishing the chick in his palm. "Want me to try again?"

"No, no that's quite all right," said Lyle, resuming his perch. "I think we should let everyone do an initial attempt and go from there."

He had one of the other students try and her attempt was also a failure, though she had Transfigured the feather instead of summoning her chick. Toshio went next, and he also had Conjured his, rather than summoning. Emily was called after.

She stood at the front of the room and held the feather in her hand, her wand pointed directly at it, just as Ramirez had done. She focused intently on the chick she'd put in the box. She thought of every detail of the bird, how it looked, the color of its feathers, and began to wave her wand around. But halfway through she stopped.

"What's wrong?" asked Lyle.

"I'm not sure I'm doing this right," she said, somewhat sheepishly. "I can tell my thought process is nothing more than Conjuration…"

"It's good that you're self-aware," said Lyle. "Try to focus on the origin of the animal itself. You know it's in the box; try and feel for the chick…"

Emily nodded and refocused, trying to change her line of thinking. She focused hard on the box this time, imagining the specific bird itself, rather than just its characteristics. As she began to wave her wand, she had a different feeling in her arm, and she noticed her wand-tip glowing white as she brought it swinging down.

There was a louder crack than before, and the box in the back of the room shook slightly. Emily gasped in amazement as the little chick landed in her hand, turning around wildly as it panicked about its change in location. The class clapped politely for her, and Lyle leaped forward, scaring the small bird, which frantically clawed its way up Emily's arm.

"Beautiful display!" exclaimed Lyle. "An awesome example of Summoning!"

"Thank you," said Emily, bowing lightly, which sent the chick falling. She grabbed it as it fell.

"Matt?" asked Lyle, indicating the front of the room.

Matt nodded and put his chick in the box. His thought process was the same as Emily's; he focused on the feather in his hand, trying to imagine it linking back to the bird it had come from, across the room, inside the box. He focused not so much on the feather as his wand spiraled around, but on the starting location of the chick. His wandtip glowed a blue-silver color as he brought it swishing down towards his open palm.

This time, there was an even louder crack, and the box at the back of the room warped slightly, as though it was being stepped on. Matt gasped as the chick appeared in front of him, but with a blast of air that sent papers around him flying. Lyle smiled and walked forward, looking closely at the chick.

"And another success! Though not as clean a Summon as Emily's… still, for a first attempt, a marvelous result!" Lyle said, patting Matt's chick lightly on the head.

The final student went and, having observed everyone else's attempts, was able to summon his chick as well. Lyle then had them all do it again. Emily's summon was the same as before, and Ramirez matched her style when he summoned his own as well. Toshio, the other girl in the class, and Matt all were successful again, but, as with Matt's first attempt, the box was heavily mangled during the actual summon itself. The other boy in the class was unable to properly summon, and Lyle asked him to stay behind after class to try and give him some extra practice at it. The rest of the students, however, were elated.

"Excellent progress, everyone!" Lyle said, grinning. "For next week, we're going to try and increase the distance and use some obstacles. Starting in December, we're going to move up in size to larger creatures. My suggestion would be to use whatever pets you have; make sure to spend extra time with them this month and really build up your relationship. The closer you are to an animal, the easier it will be to summon them."

The class began to file out and Lyle stopped Matt and Emily in the hall. He asked them to meet with him the following week during the evening so that he could continue their lesson on Modern Magic. Matt and Emily nodded, but then headed off towards their dorms since Matt was on the verge of a coma.

That weekend, which turned rainy and gray, there was an Open Campus weekend, which allowed students to leave campus unsupervised and explore the town and area. The seniors were also permitted to travel wherever they wanted, so long as they were back at Seaside by the time campus closed back down on Sunday. This was also a weekend that prospective students for following years came to tour the school. Matt and Emily were going to go to Garth's Hollow, the nearest (and one of the only) all-magical towns on the Pacific Coast, but those plans were put on hold when they were tracked down by their Zoology professors at breakfast.

"Matt, Emily, would you come with us for the morning?" asked Professor Mindy Otis, her face flushed and her breathing heavy. "We just got a very important delivery, and it would really mean a lot if you guys came to help us. Milo is down there with it and-."

"Sure," Matt said, nodding and standing up.

"Will it take long? We were going to visit Garth's Hollow and stuff," Emily said.

"Unfortunately you'll have to cancel those plans if you want to help us," said Professor Otis, apologetically. "But I think it'll be worth it."

"Don't sweat it, guys," said Ramirez, standing up. "We can get Mom's permission and go to Garth's Hollow another time if you want. Why don't we build up some good karma and help out our profs?"

"Ever the pragmatist," said Professor Otis with a grin. "You're Josephine's son all right. Meet us out by the pens as soon as you finish your breakfast; we need to have this all set up by the beginning of tour time."

"Funny. Last time I checked, you weren't in any Zoology classes," said Emily.

"Being the principal's son comes with a lot of burdens, I'm afraid," said Ramirez, grinning and scratching his head. "One of which is whoring yourself out to any professor who has a request, regardless of how much it applies to you."

Katrina and Teruhiko also volunteered to join them, and they guilted Nayoko into it as well. Lillian, seeing as none of her friends were going to Garth's Hollow, also ditched the Open Campus and volunteered to help as well. They changed into more casual clothes and wandered down to the pens on the edge of campus, right near the southern end of the beach and the northern entrance to the immense woods around the school. Professors Otis and Kearns were carefully levitating several enormous crates around into the stronger, magically re-enforced pens. They glanced around the remainder of the area; many of the creatures they'd been studying were nowhere to be found. Only Nifflers, Bowtruckles, and several Krups sat in their pens, most dozing in the early morning mist.

"Oh, good, you brought that other Hogwarts girl and some extra muscle," said Professor Kearns as he wiped the sweat from his brow. "They've been magically sedated, but I think it's starting to wear off…"

Inside one of the boxes, something gave off a shaky roar. It sounded familiar to Matt and Emily, who took a few steps towards the crates. On the sides, they saw writing. It read: "TO: SEASIDE MAGICAL ACADEMY / FROM: HOGWARTS SCHOOL OF WITCHCRAFT AND WIZARDRY."

"As you can see," said Professor Otis, walking over. "We have received our shipment for the AP Zoology classes a bit earlier than expected. Since we understand that the Zoology courses at Hogwarts are bit more… rigorous… than what the A.W.A. permits us, we wanted your assistance in preparing them for the tours today."

"What are they?" asked Nayoko, looking scared as one of the boxes began to rock back and forth.

"You'll see," said Professor Kearns, holding up his wand. "Ready, Mindy?"

"Go ahead, Milo," she said, raising her wand as well.

There was a crack of wood, and the front of the boxes broke off and flew high into the sky. From inside, eight beautiful creatures emerged, shaking their heads and stretching their wings. Their tales swished behind them as they entered the new pens, examining the people that stood before them. It was the gryphons they'd raised their previous year at Hogwarts.

"Ryzalt!" Emily exclaimed, running over to the edge of the pen.

"Katrina!" said Matt, also running to the pen next door.

The two gryphons immediately perked up when they heard their names, and rushed forward to greet the two students. Ryzalt had grown even taller than Emily now, her graceful, golden wings shimmered, even in the mist and cloudy skies. Katrina tripped over her own feet and crashed into the side of the pen, though Matt had expected this and merely knelt down to pat her beak as she lay sprawled on the ground. Her calico spots were just as eclectic as ever, and she appeared to be incapable of balance when she got excited.

"Told ya it'd be exciting," said Professor Otis.

"Gryphons? Are you kidding me?" exclaimed Nayoko. "We're going to be doing gryphons?"

"They're really not that bad, Nayoko," said Emily, rolling her eyes. "Besides, judging by how few we have here, it's going to be one per two or three students, yeah?"

"That's correct," said Professor Kearns. "We only could get permission for this many; we wanted all of them, but…"

"Hagrid sent these, then?" asked Matt, as he dusted off Katrina's wings.

"Yep! Said you guys would really enjoy them, and asked us to give them a good home, away from the fighting. Things have gotten really, really bad over there, apparently…" explained Professor Otis.

"So… this one's named Katrina, too?" asked Katrina as she wandered over to look at the gryphon, who was still lying on its back, trying to eat a small fern growing in the corner of the pen.

"Yeah… she's a bit special," said Matt, petting her feathers. "Very gentle… kinda goofy. Well meaning, though."

"Looks like a handful," said Teruhiko, chuckling and walking forward to meet Ryzalt. "Beautiful and ferocious though, dude. I'd love one."

"Well if you decide to pick up AP Zoology you're welcome to take care of one yourself!" exclaimed Professor Kearns, as he began to dig through some of the foodstuffs they'd brought.

"Yeah… I think I'm good with my 5 make-up classes," said Teruhiko.

Matt's eye twitched and he gave Teruhiko a frantic, venom-filled glare. Gryphon Katrina saw the look and it confused her, because she struggled to her feet and reared up, expanding her wings (and hitting two other gryphons in the face).

"Easy girl," said Mindy, rushing forward to make sure the others didn't get upset.

The other gryphons had long come to terms with Katrina's antics, however, and merely shook it off and gave her a wider berth. Once Katrina calmed down, they set to cleaning the gryphons from the trip, making sure they were fed and their talons were properly cleaned. By the time the sun began to peak through the fog, they could see the first tours beginning to arrive. Professor Kearns smiled.

"Perfect timing on their part," he said. "So, what we're going to do is do some shifts. Matt, Emily, since you two have worked with the gryphons before, you'll be a more calming presence in the pens themselves. So we'll do half time with the gryphons, half time answering questions from prospective families. Sound good?"

"Works for me," replied the former Hogwarts students.

Matt, Ramirez, Katrina, and Professor Otis took first shift in the pens, while Emily, Nayoko, Teruhiko, Lillian, and Professor Kearns took questions from the first groups to arrive. The gryphons were still coming out of their enchanted sleeps, so they were very calm about allowing the strangers to approach them, even the tours. Gryphon Katrina seemed really excited about all the people, and always rushed to the edge of the pen to view the newest arrivals.

"So you train gryphons here?" one particularly frightened-looking mother said, holding a napkin to her mouth. "Aren't they incredibly dangerous?"

"Only if you're stupid enough not to respect them. That includes poking them with sticks," said Emily, as one of the woman's young children had been sneaking to the pen with a large branch in its hand.

"Good heavens, and they let mere students feed them? Is that not foolish?" asked the woman.

"Well, golly," said Emily, in mock concern. "At my old school, we regularly dealt with hippogriffs, dragons, blast-ended skrewts, and many of other dangerous creatures; these seem tame by that comparison!"

"Thank you, Emily, I think it's time you went and switched spots with Matt in the pen, hmm?" said Professor Kearns, intercepting the woman, whose face had gone pale.

"If you insist," said Emily, smiling brightly and skipping away.

"You realize we're supposed to be trying to convince people to _come_ here, right?" Matt asked, grinning.

"Meh, she was a whiner and I bet her kids are spoiled," Emily said, shrugging and mounting Ryzalt. They glanced over and saw the pale woman practically collapse into Professor Kearns' arms.

By the end of the afternoon, they'd talked with almost a hundred potential families. When word had gotten around about the gryphons (and the fact that they apparently had a psychopathic Amazon savage riding on the back of one of them), everyone seemed to want to get a good look. By the end of it, the gryphons were starting to become restless, especially as the sedation continued to wear off. Just before dinner, their professors dismissed them and began to escort the gryphons to a more private pen. Matt and Emily promised to come visit their own gryphons the following day, and most days thereafter, until they got adjusted to Seaside.

The next day, Dr. Tavoularius stopped by their table and thanked them for giving the school such fantastic publicity with the gryphons. She showed them some of the new brochure pictures they were taking, which showed Emily riding Ryzalt around the pen and Matt and Katrina trying to teach Gryphon Katrina to properly stand on her hind legs. She also said that she had received word from Lady Shandra that the Academy's Top Five would be visiting again the following weekend, and that they should discuss whatever needed to be discussed with the Hacker cousins.

They were really happy to hear about this; the silence from Lady Shandra's Academy had been starting to worry them (when their classes allowed them to focus on it, anyway). There had been nothing out of the ordinary from their Protean robes, either. Mateo and Lisa updated them almost daily, even on days where nothing had happened. So far, the worst had been yet another detention for Jack and Melody, this time for defending the Hufflepuff Hannah Abbott from an attack by a Slytherin.

As was usually the case with an impending visit from Shailagh and Siyon, Matt and Emily found it especially difficult to concentrate on their lessons that week. Even when Lyle had the Modern Magic lesson, where both Matt and Emily had completely forgotten to write down any of the spells they'd practiced, they only spoke briefly about Lyle's theories as to why rigid incantations were obsolete and limiting, demonstrating this by using improper incantations for spells that still worked perfectly, and with silent spells as well.

During his Wednesday night class with Lady Shandra, Matt finally got a chance to ask her about his Tarot project, but her frustratingly vague answers didn't tell him anything new. She didn't have her Top Five with her that night, either, so he couldn't ask Shailagh about it either. He poured over his notes, concerned that some of the more recent readings were pointing towards new arrivals, yet others contradicted that leaning towards more familiar faces, rather than people arriving brand new.

When the Top Five arrived after dinner on Friday, Matt, Emily, and Ramirez started to move towards the group, waving at Shailagh. She gave them a very fierce stare and shook her head twice, then turned and swept away. Siyon followed, not even looking at them. Nico and Judith, however, did meet their gaze. Nico bowed his head and walked away and Judith gave them half a smile and a wink before following the rest of the Academy students up the stairs towards their guest quarters.

"What the hell was that about?" asked Emily as they walked back into the cafeteria.

"Did you do something to piss her off?" asked Matt to Ramirez.

"No, I haven't talked to her in a couple of weeks. Not even an owl," said Ramirez, frowning and scratching his chin.

"Nothing's been over the robes, either, that would put her in that bit of rage," Matt muttered.

"Maybe we should ask Dr. T?" asked Emily. "Think maybe she and Shandra know something?"

"Let's wait until tomorrow at least," said Ramirez. "Shailagh doesn't do unnecessary rage… it's not part of her personality. She must have a good reason for that look."

It didn't really assuage Matt, nor Emily. They spent most of the evening in uneasy silence. They wracked their brains, but couldn't think of any possible thing they could have done to incur Shailagh's wrath. They hadn't messed up the Hogwarts mission, so it wasn't likely any form of punishment from Lady Shandra. And even if it was… Shailagh wouldn't hold that against them. They both eventually came to the conclusion that whatever was causing Shailagh's foul mood wasn't caused by them.

Of course, that was only partly relieved them. If it wasn't them who was causing it, what had happened to her, or what had she Seen that made her act so rude to them? They had to wait for the answer for a long time; Lady Shandra kept them all in a meeting the entirety of Saturday morning, followed by an off-campus lunch in Garth's Hollow.

"They're back," said Katrina, glancing over as the group worked on their homework in the cafeteria in the afternoon.

"Is Shailagh deigning to look at you guys yet?" asked Nayoko, her voice full of irritation.

"I don't see why you're upset by that," Teruhiko grumbled, knocking one of her unused notebooks off the table. "Doesn't seem to concern you, does it?"  
"I just think it's rude to show displaced anger and not at least explain it," retorted Nayoko, levitating the notebook back up and smacking Teruhiko in the back of the head with it.

"I'm sure she has a good reason…" muttered Lillian, concentrating hard on a list of Runes.

"Indeed I did," said Shailagh, who had broken from the pack and walked over to greet them.

Her face was back to its usual blank, serious state. But her eyes held no hostility and even looked vaguely apologetic. Matt and Emily stood and embraced her quickly, followed by Ramirez. Siyon walked over, too, and she and Xavier greeted each other with a nonchalant wave.

"What's been going on? What was with that death glare yesterday?" asked Emily.

"It's a long story," said Shailagh. "And one best kept between only those who need to know."

She glanced at the others. Teruhiko, Katrina, and Toshio got the hint and began to leave. Nayoko looked like she wasn't going to move at all until her brothers grabbed her books and quills, forcing her to follow them to a different table. The remaining students sat down at the table and waited for Shailagh to begin.

"The McGuire's campaign to locate you two has… escalated," said Shailagh, frowning. "We've been doing our best with the Artifact Conjunction, but locating them is difficult…"

"Not impossible, though," said Siyon. "I've caught snippets of it. Lots of snippets, actually. Sometimes whole half-minutes worth of sight. But it's incredibly taxing, and my performance in my regular lessons has suffered because of it…"

"But once she managed to find the wavelengths I needed to focus on, I began to takeover," explained Shailagh. "We were fortunate in the beginning that neither were as adept at Occlumency as they had thought. I could see entire scenes as though I was looking through their eyes.

"But there was one night… I had a premonition of sorts that told me I should be focused on them. I was in the middle of a class, but I had to do it right then; I was sure of it. I excused myself into the hall and, strangely, the pictures came to me clearly. I could see through the younger one, Seth, and his father. They were masked, but the wavelengths were the right ones. I don't know where they were but it had to be in the Americas because of how clear the visions were.

"Anyway… they had located an A.W.A. official. I don't know who he was, it was hazy… and they were… torturing him for information. They wanted your whereabouts and everyone you associated with…"

Matt felt sick to his stomach and Emily's fists tightened involuntarily with rage. It was a muted version of their feelings after Salem all over again. Others were suffering for their sake and nothing else.

"The rage they felt in their minds at not learning anything… whatever it was, it had been incredibly difficult to locate the A.W.A. man and their efforts weren't paying off. It can be incredibly painful to feel emotions through another… especially rage and hatred…"

She paused momentarily, as if the memory of it caused her physical discomfort. They waited for her to continue, tense and barely breathing. Siyon glanced at her cousin, the briefest traces of concern on her face.

"Seth… finally had enough. He gave him one final chance to give up his contacts and his information and when the man refused… he killed him," said Shailagh, shuddering.

Matt actually felt himself dry heave and Emily's entire body seized up in shock. The entire group seemed to have momentarily forgotten to breathe. Shailagh held her face in her hands for a few moments before she was able to continue, drawing a deep, shuddering breath.

"When… when you look into someone's mind like that, it's easy to forget that it's not you. You feel everything that person feels, and their body moves as its like your own. I… I'm ashamed, but I was so caught up in the vision that I forgot myself. I felt panic. I felt like I was the one who killed him, not Seth…"

"But you didn't… you could never…" Matt muttered.

"I know. It's illogical to think otherwise, and I fail myself as a Seer for letting myself get wrapped up in it. And I think they sensed me being there," said Shailagh, bowing her head in disgrace.

"So do they know it was you, then?" asked Ramirez.

"I… I don't think so," said Shailagh. "I mean it's going to be extremely obvious that our Academy is involved in some way because… let's face it… nowhere else is there a gathering of such strong psychics and diviners…"

"She collapsed right after the vision and was… out of it, for lack of better description," said Siyon. "For almost a week. But our biggest fear was all of this being compromised."

"We didn't know if they had their own band of Seers or not in the ranks of Death Eaters," explained Shailagh. "So I didn't do any further Conjunctions, nor sight beyond my usual lessons at the Academy. We couldn't afford to communicate with you at all just in case someone was trying to track me."

"We've had Nico and Lady Shandra both keeping a sense out for those alien wavelengths," said Siyon. "Of course, it's next-to-impossible to try and penetrate the mind defenses of Lady Shandra's Academy… but we were unsure about Seaside and the surrounding areas."

"That's why I had to make sure none of you greeted me until we were certain there was no interference," said Shailagh. "Thankfully, none of us have sensed anything… but…"

"But what?" asked Emily.

"Seaside's security in general worries me," said Shailagh. "I'm not a good aura sensor… Judith's forte is that… but… she senses an uneasy aura beginning to fall over Seaside."

They all looked around, as though expecting to suddenly notice a cloud or fog falling on the grounds. Instead, the sun shone brightly through the windows as the November air churned up some sand on the beach and the choppy ocean crashed against some of the distant sand bars and rocks.

"You wouldn't be able to see it without the special training or innate gift," Siyon said. "It's not something taught anywhere in America besides our Academy."

"Of course not," muttered Matt. "That'd be far too convenient."

"All I'm going to say is that you should keep your guards up no matter what. According to what Lady Shandra and Dr. Tavoularius said, the A.W.A. has you both under even further surveillance than before. And they're taking measures to counteract any possible risk to you both," explained Shailagh.

"Oh great, here we go again. Let me guess: no leaving the country unsupervised?" asked Emily, sighing.

"It's much worse than that. You can't even leave Seaside or any other uncontrolled areas without escorts and the A.W.A. approval," said Shailagh. "And they've already begun setting up barriers around your homes."

"Are you serious?" exclaimed Matt, his mind reeling from everything they'd learned in the past few minutes.

"Extremely, and you should be as well," said Shailagh. "All my indications are pointing towards an inevitable danger. No matter where you go, I feel that it's only a matter of time before they locate you. You need to be prepared, and I think it might be time for us to alert the staff at Seaside about the dangers you're all in."

They were all silent. Matt and Emily were both torn between the horror that another had been killed for their sake, and the indignation that they were stuck tethered to Seaside at all times until the matter with the McGuires was put to rest.

"This doesn't make any sense," snarled Emily. "What's so special about us?"

"It's not like we're Harry Potter or something," Matt said. "We're not the Chosen Ones or anything like that. Aside from Modern Magic, which everyone would probably consider us freaks for as it is, there's nothing about us that makes us special."

"Precisely," said Siyon. "Neither of you are particularly special at all."

"It's pride," said Shailagh. "The McGuires have a potent drive for perfection, and the thought that anyone out there can best them at anything drives them insane. They'll stop at nothing to get you, and their daughter Sharolyn too."

"They're… they're after us because we beat them up a couple times? They want us dead because of _that_?" cried Emily.

"Monsters…" muttered Lillian.

"That may be a fitting description, really," said Shailagh. "Their obsession over not being defeated, knowing that someone out there exists that bests them… it tears at their insides. Which, frankly, I'm happy about. If they're going to be hell-bent on trying to murder two of my friends, I hope it causes them every kind of horrible pain imaginable."

The group fell into silence. Ramirez and Lillian avoided Matt and Emily's gazes. The two, now labeled as the main targets of the McGuires, couldn't help but feel their spirits quickly descending into depression. It was too much information to take in all at once.

"You will be okay, of course," said Shailagh. "Those of us in the Top Five are constantly utilizing our skills to ensure your protection and obtain information on the enemy."

"You shouldn't have to do that…" muttered Emily. "Your own studies—."

"Pale in comparison to such amazing real-world applications," said Shailagh. "It's not often we can devote so much time and resource into one single objective. In reality, it is us who should be thanking you, though it's unfair for us to be enjoying this when you two suffer…"

"Not at all," said Matt. "Thank you for everything you do for us. Is there nothing else we can do?"

"Keep focused on your Modern Magic lessons. The McGuires will certainly be trying to utilize it for themselves. If their pride is as powerful as I believe it is, they will also use it to try and defeat you when the time comes," said Siyon.

"Is there anything us Seasiders can do to assist?" asked Lillian.

"Yeah, me and Teruhiko will break necks if we gotta," said Ramirez, cracking his knuckles while Xavier nodded.

"For now, I'd say no. If there are spies, any further unusual activity from the students could be seen and that, too, would compromise our position. Our meeting like this is the extent of the actions we want to take right now," said Shailagh.

"Makes sense," said Matt. "Besides, I don't want to put you in danger for our sake; you and your family have already done so much for us."

"Haha yeah, like we're going to listen to that," said Ramirez sarcastically, flashing a grin.

"Besides, that won't be necessary come next weekend," said Shailagh, closing her eyes and rubbing her temples. "If my visions are correct (and let's face it, they always are), Seaside will have built-in protection of sorts coming in."

"Huh?" asked the others, confused.

"Just wait and see," said Shailagh, standing and stretching. "We shall return for dinner, Lady Shandra wants us to do extra meditations today to make up for lost time these past few weeks. Come, Siyon."

"Goodbye," said Siyon, bowing and walking away.

After the Hacker cousins left, the Yakakos and Katrina returned. They spent the rest of the pre-dinner afternoon chatting about schoolwork and making small talk with each other. Before the meal, Matt and Emily excused themselves to go visit the gryphons for a short time. They walked alone, minds reeling as they approached the pens just inside the forest.

"I hate this," said Matt, petting Katrina as she came to the edge of the pen and promptly got her head stuck in one of the open squares.

"No kidding. But what can we do at this point?" sighed Emily. "We'll have to buckle down and deal with it. I sure as hell am not going to let them win."

"I know that," said Matt. "I just don't like how everyone else is doing all this work, putting themselves in danger… while we piss around riding gryphons and slacking through classes."

"You know… it's weird. Being at Seaside and away from Hogwarts kinda makes everything seem so… unreal. It's only when Shailagh and Siyon visit that we kinda remember, 'oh, right, there's some psychopaths hunting you guys down,'" Emily said.

"Yeah," agreed Matt. "I think it's high time we start really focusing on the modern magic thing for real. We can't do object Con…vect…juagation… or whatever… and my Tarot cards aren't exactly the most proper for knowing the future... but the modern magic stuff is something we can both do for sure."

"And I agree with Shailagh that we need to tell some of the staff here the whole story. I'm not sure how much Dr. T knows from Ramirez and Lady Shandra…" said Emily as she careful unlatched the gate to lead Ryzalt out. "But she at least deserves the full truth."

"Let's tell Lyle, too," said Matt. "That way his lessons might be tailored further to help us."

"And he's been so awesome to us," agreed Emily. "Who else? Lt. Briggs, probably, since he's our Dueling Professor and would have some good skills to defend us with…"

"Maybe Laurenzi? What about our Zoology professors? And maybe even Ching, to make sure we know how to heal things… oh, and—," Matt started to ramble.

"No, I think we should narrow it down to only four or five to start with," countered Emily. "Remember, Shailagh said there may already be spies here, and half of these professors are brand new…"

Even as she said it, the feelings of unease rose inside of her, and she could see it clearly on Matt's face too. How many of those recently-hired teachers were truly trustworthy? Every professor who hadn't been a Seaside teacher before had suddenly morphed into a suspect, and it made them both shiver.

"Let's think about it this week and figure out who we're going to tell," said Matt. "Whatever the thing that's coming next week is, there's no point in really doing anything until that's put in place, especially since that'll probably be taking up all of Dr. T's time."

"Right. And since Shailagh said Judith thought the auras were only starting to change around here… that should mean it's still safe, right?" asked Emily.

"We never studied aura, so I have no idea," Matt said, finally getting Katrina's head unstuck (only for her to promptly get her wing stuck in the branches of a tree inside the pen).

The conversation mostly faded after that as the sun began to set over the ocean. The gryphons, sensing their owners' unease, began to make noise and nudge them playfully, trying to distract them from the thoughts of all the dangers swirling around them just past the protective barriers of Seaside.

**Author's Note:**

**We'll see how much my writing time increases or decreases given my training starting two weeks from yesterday! Thank you for reading.**


	6. Chapter 6

**Author's Note: Though I haven't updated this in a while, I did do a lot of major editing on the storyline towards the end, as well as adding a few things that filled in a few plot holes (not all of them, obviously, given the Stu origins of the story, but enough that I even surprised myself with a couple of them). I know I say and promise this every single time I update, but I'm going to try and crank this particular story out. I want it completed by the beginning of April at the latest, and I'm going to shoot for March. It's all planned out. So… yeah. Here you go.**

Chapter Six: Precautions

Thanksgiving week only had 3 days of classes, though Wednesday adopted Friday's schedule to avoid missing lessons. The new security measures rumored to be coming through the halls showed up Monday night when a small battalion of AWA Guards arrived at the school, greeted and introduced by Professor Tavoularius.

"Though it's not typically my style to be completely and totally serious about… well… anything," said Dr. T. "Especially in regards to the AWA, I am treating this as a serious matter. Effective immediately, AWA Aurors will be patrolling the grounds and perimeters and entrances of Seaside.

"This is a mandated directive of our President and comes from the highest offices. This is to ensure your safety in the growing concern over what is currently happening in Great Britain and in other parts of Europe. Though we don't anticipate any risk to anybody in America after the isolated Salem incident, we'd rather err on the side of cautions."

Matt and Emily exchanged a dark look at this. They wondered if Dr. T was aware that Shailagh had informed them of the murder, and the true reason these guards were in the schools was solely because of the two former Hogwarts students. Some of their fellow students seemed to have come to this conclusion in one way or another; many would turn to glance at Matt or Emily, trying to gauge their reactions

"Don't think that Seaside has been singled out in this new set of security measures," said Dr. T. "If you speak to any friends and family who attend or work at other American magical schools, you will come to understand that this has occurred everywhere, from Nome to Tempe, from Salem to Kahoolawe."

"Kahoolawe? Damn we went to the wrong school," muttered Emily.

"No kidding," Matt returned the reply.

"So, that all being said, this is the most obvious and visual sign of our increased security. Feel free to ask them questions, but please don't interfere with their work and if they tell you to back off, do so. It goes without saying that they can't discuss any sensitive security information. Are there any questions?"

Nayoko was the only one to raise her hand. Several people in the audience groaned.

"Are there any other security protocols or enchantments we should be aware of?" she asked.

"Why yes," said Dr. T, who then paused. "Oh, you want to actually know about them? Suffice to say… sneaking out after hours is still doable… but good luck getting back onto the campus undetected. Beyond that… nothing that any normal, law-abiding students would have any trouble triggering."

Dr. T smiled and looked around the room, and finally dismissed them. As they were walking out, Teruhiko joked about Nayoko's concern over the possibility of extra security measures, as if she would ever have a problem with it. Nayoko sighed impatiently and dragged Lillian off to study for an Arithmancy exam the two had coming up.

"You do realize she asked only for your sake, right?" Katrina said, looking at Teruhiko.

This shut him up. Teruhiko and his friends were well-known for sneaking out to Garth's Hollow on a regular basis, especially on nights were Dr. Ching was doing rounds trying to catch underage drinking in the dorms. He shrugged, made some comment about going to work out with the guys, and he stalked off.

The next day, after an exhausting Transmutation class and a quick meeting with Jerome to hear updates on his family, Matt and Emily headed for Matt's dorm so he could grab his Elemental books and change his robes (after a minor mishap in the morning Remedial Potions stained a good part of it silver… as in, literal silver). They were surprised to see the dorm next door had a pile of boxes and books and a trunk sitting outside of it.

"Someone moving out?" asked Emily, curiously.

"In, I think," said Toshio as he poked his head out of the room Matt shared with the other guys. "Some new guy."

"That 'new guy,' is me," said a voice behind them.

They turned to see a wizard in Muggle plainclothes, holding a big box of heavy books. He was only a couple of inches taller than Matt, built lean and sturdy with an oval face and a strong jaw. He grinned at them, his whole face working into huge dimples and lines as his eyes squinted into thin orbs that shone with mischievous glee. On his left bicep the could see an ornamental Celtic cross tattoo with an arm band, his muscles bulged as he balanced the box on one arm, while extending the others to shake their hands.

"Pleasure to meetcha, neighbor," said Matt, smiling and shaking his hand. His grip was firm. "The name's Matt."

"I'm Toshio," said Toshio, leaning out of the door frame to meet the strong grasp.

"Emily," said the blonde witch, bowing a little as she shook his hand.

To her surprise, he grasped her hand and brought it up to his face, kissing the back of her hand. Taken by complete surprise, she dropped her hand by her said, and fixed the newcomer with a half-shocked, half-amused look. He merely grinned wider.

"By chance are your last names Warren and Davis?" he asked.

"Yep," said Matt. "How come?"

"Well excellent. I was assigned here to keep an eye on you. Sort of a personal bodyguard for the two of you," said the man. "The name is James."

"Pleasure," said Emily, still reeling from the random kiss. "So you're more of Dr. T.'s security, huh?"

"That's right, babe," he said, setting the heavy box down on top of his trunk and bowing to them. "AWA Auror-in-Training, First Class. James is all you need to know for now, though."

"Fair enough," said Emily. "I'm gonna go back to my dorm and… uh… get ready for dinner."

She walked away, throwing one more look back at James and rubbing the spot on her hand where he'd kissed them. James' wide grin lasted until after she'd turned the corner and entered the stairwell. Matt couldn't help but chuckle.

"I've never seen anything throw her off like that before," said Matt.

"I'm gonna marry that girl someday," said James, picking up the box and disappearing into his room.

"… wait, what?" Matt said, whirling around.

"Yep. She's gonna be my wife. I guarantee it," called James from within his room.

Matt and Toshio looked at each other, eyebrows raised right to the hair line.

Emily walked back to her dorm, happy that it was getting dark because she was still trying to process what had happened. Nobody had ever done that to her before… and she'd heard what James had said. She was… definitely flattered. And he was very, very good looking… but… he was awfully forward, and that unnerved her. Was he just joking around with her? He was the new bodyguard after all…

She was so deep in her thoughts that she turned the corner and immediately collided with someone coming out of the girls' dorms.

"Sorry!" she gasped.

"It's fine, I wasn't watching where I was going either," replied the girl.

"… wait, Vicki?" said Emily, her eyes widening in shock.

"Oh. Hi, Emily," replied the thin brunette, brushing her long hair back out of her face.

Emily was floored. First the new guy, James… and now Vicki, a girl she and Matt had known way back when they were students back in their Muggle school district. She had had no idea that she was a witch.

"L-long time, no see," said Emily. "When did you transfer here?"

"About twenty minutes ago. I'm part of a bodyguard group assimilating among the students," replied the smaller girl.

"With James?" asked Emily.

"Oh so you've met him," said Vicki, smiling and shaking her head a little. "Quite the character, isn't he?"

"Yeah… he… uh… said he was gonna marry me, I think," said Emily.

"Hm. Well that's new. I knew he could be a flirt but… wow," said Vicki, seemingly as taken aback as Emily. "Well, suffice to say, I'm here to keep you and Matt safe. How is he?"

"Good. I'm sure he's going to be just as surprised about your sudden appearance," said Emily.

She was right. Matt was almost alarmingly excited at seeing a former classmate from their previous life joining them at Seaside. He wasted no time introducing Vicki to literally everyone he knew in Seaside, ignorant of her shell-shocked looks. James had sided up next to Emily, sitting as close as he possibly could without actually touching her.

"So, then, Vicki, how'd you end up with the A.W.A.?" asked Matt. "I had no idea you were a witch; when did your education start?"

"My parents didn't want me to go away to one of the long-term suites, so I did a lot of night and weekend courses at the American Magical Institute at Centralia," said Vicki. "It's a charming place, once you get past the noxious fumes rising from the mines.

"Anyway, when I was 16 they had this exam thing for the A.W.A. and it was basically a get out of class free thing so I took the test. But apparently I scored high enough on it that they recruited me into their internship with the Aurors and now I'm an official Auror-in-Training, Third Class. That's how I met James."

"Yep!" James said, grinning. "I just opted out of my education early; Myriad Magical Academy is my alma mater of sorts. Beautiful place, right on Hilton Head Island, near a beach like this… only it's warmer than Seaside."

"And you got stuck on bodyguard duty watching us," said Emily. "I pity you both."

"Aw don't sweat it, darlin', you make it worth it," said James, turning his head to grin widely at her.

The rest of the table laughed at how flustered Emily got, although Nayoko and Lillian seemed to be a bit irritated with James' forward attempts with Emiliy. Ramirez immediately engaged the two newcomers in deep conversation about the school and the professors, while Katrina chatted with them like they were old friends and Teruhiko threw in some color commentary on certain teachers that brought loud chuckles from James and even a few giggles from Vicki. As it got later, the AP Elemental students got up to leave.

"So what do you do about classes?" asked Toshio.

"Well… 'far as I can tell they gave us identical schedules to Matt and Emily," said James. "But we don't have to start until tomorrow, so don't get killed tonight, 'aight?"

Matt and Emily rolled their eyes and laughed, walking away with their classmates. Once out of earshot of Vicki and James and the others at the table, they made eye contact and through their facial expressions shared an entire conversation of confusion, concern, and shock at just what lengths the school was actually going for them. They wondered just how much crazier school was going to get with them flanking them on every turn.

At 0800 hours the next morning, as Lt. Briggs often decreed it, the AP Dueling Class met in one of the larger gathering chambers, seated on the stone structures around the room. Though everyone was yawning and stretching, their fatigue wasn't going to be long-lived. Lt. Briggs marched in, took his roll call, and immediately began splitting them up for warm-up Disarmings, Petrifications, and Leg-Lockers. Emily somehow found herself right next to James in line, and he wasn't deterred even at the early hour, already openly flirting with her. Lt. Briggs wasn't pleased.

"JOHNSON!" he barked. "Step forward."

"Sir!" James exclaimed, saluting.

"You think you can just waltz on into my classroom, ignore my orders, and distract my students, hm? I don't know how they did things at whatever school you came from, but in _my classroom_, you will respect my orders. Do you understand?" asked Lt. Briggs, getting right in James' face.

"Absolutely, Sir," said James, eyes locked forward.

"Perhaps… you feel this is all beneath your talents?" asked Lt. Brigs, his eyes narrowing and a thin smile crossing his lips. "How about a demonstration, then? Michael. Front and center."

Mike Torrentino, Teruhiko's friend from the Hogwarts trip, marched forward, and took a position in the center of the floor. The rest of the students shifted uncomfortably. Briggs' favorite way to discipline students was to force them to face-off against his best and favorite students. Though far from being the most brilliant of seniors, Mike was a devastatingly good Duelist. Ramirez, Matt, and Emily had all been forced to fight him for infractions in class already; not one of them had fired off more than one curse before Mike wiped the floor with them.

"Bow to each other. On my mark, you begin," commanded Lt. Briggs, stomping to the center of the arena.

James and Mike bowed to each other and then took ten steps back away from each other. The class fell silent. Mike's arrogance was written all over his face as he made eye-contact with a few of his friends, sniggering. James' face, on the other hand, was absent of its usual happy-go-lucky air. His jaw was set, and his eyes were narrowed in concentration.

"DUEL!" cried Lt. Briggs, his wand setting off the shot of a firecracker.

Mike barely had a chance to open his mouth before James had knocked him back with an Impedimenta spell. His wand moved so fast that nobody had even seen the spell cast. Mike recovered fairly quickly and fired a Stunner at James, who threw himself to the floor and rolled out of the way of the assault.

"_Levicorpus!_" snarled James.

Mike was lifted high into the sky, dangling by his left ankle. Swearing as his loose shirt fell over his head, obscuring his vision, he ripped through it and fired another spell at James, missing him by inches. James leapt to his feet and ran forward.

"_Incendio!_" he roared.

A circle of fire formed around Mike, who found himself released from the levitating spell. He spun around and doused the flames with Aguamenti, but his lack in concentration paid off when he turned to see James, a devilish smile on his face, standing merely inches away.

"_Bombarda Minima,"_ he said.

The ground at Mike's feet exploded, shooting him across the arena. He crashed to the floor at Lt. Briggs' feet, moaning in pain and unable to stand up. Their professor looked furious that his student had been beaten so effortlessly; they could see a vein twitching on his head. James bowed to the applause of his class and the sauntered over to join them, kicking the tattered pieces of Mike's shirt away from him as he went.

"You do remember our orders about keeping a low profile, right?" asked Vicki, though she couldn't help smiling.

"Yeah, yeah, I remember," said James, waving the thought away. "But, c'mon, I gotta have a little bit of fun!"

"Remind me never to piss you off. Ever," said Matt, mouth still hanging open after the battle.

"Yeah, I'll probably kill ya if we ever duel," said James, brightly. Then he turned to Emily. "So, did you fall in love with me just then or what?"

"That was… pretty bitchin'," said Emily, elusively.

"You know it," he said, throwing his arm around her and steering her away from the group. "C'mon, I'll give you some private lessons."

Emily turned back to the others and mouthed, "Help me." But everyone else just laughed and waved as James took her to the far end of the arena to show her more direct, and less flourishing wand movements.

Thankfully, they were able to get through the remaining days' lessons without James causing any other scenes. That night, in Summoning, they introduced themselves to Lyle, who was beside himself with glee that two new students were joining him in class. As such, he released everyone else from class, saying that he wanted to catch up the two new students. But he made Matt and Emily stay behind as well, saying he had comments about their most recent essays that needed to be addressed.

After sitting through what felt like the first two weeks of Lyle's class again, the brain-dead Emily and Matt were surprised when Lyle abruptly stopped his lecture, took out his wand, and pointed at the door.

"_Muffliato_," he said. Then, looking around the room, "_Homenum Revelio_."

He looked around at the four of his remaining students and then smiled, happy that nobody else was around.

"Now that I'm sure any inquiring minds are looking at us, how about we drop the charade and get down to some more serious discussions, hm?" asked Lyle.

"Yes. Tell us about this Modern Magic thing you've been discussing," said James.

Matt and Emily glanced at each other, then to Lyle, who smiled and nodded. Obviously, James and Vicki were in on it. They explained, with Lyle's help, the incidents that had occurred the previous year, as well as what they'd been trying to discuss and learn at Seaside. When they were done, James and Vicki were silent, eyebrows furrowed in concentration.

"Well… that's a lot more than they told us, that's for sure," said Vicki, finally.

"Yeah," said James. "We knew you guys were possible targets due to what happened in England… and let me tell you, a lot of people have protection placed on them right now."

"What?" asked Emily, shocked. "It's not just us?"

"Well… you are the only two who have specific individuals out for you," said James. "But a lot of people who fled from the United Kingdom are finding refuge here, and every single one of them is under constant surveillance."

"Why?" asked Matt. "Are they in danger, too?"

"Not… right now anyway, we think," said James. "The threat of the Dark Lord in the U.K. has mostly been isolated, thank God."

"And why isn't the A.W.A. helping with it, anyway?" asked Emily. "It's not like they don't know what's going on…"

"Things in the Wizarding World aren't the same as they are in the Muggle world, at least in how treaties and alliances work with different countries," said Vicki. "There is a general rule, from centuries ago, about non-aggression treaties and general isolation between each government. And the Dark Lord seems to be taking advantage of that, which is why the McGuires are such a liability to him."

"Yes. By targeting you two, he's specifically involving people on American soil. Only then are we allowed to respond with force," said Lyle.

"So what about that attack on Salem last year?" asked Emily. "Doesn't that count?"

"Oh, absolutely. But we don't have any concrete proof as to who was behind it," said Lyle.

"What?" cried Matt and Emily. "It was obviously Death Eaters!"

"But the M.O. was much different, and there's no definitive proof because nobody can identify any of the attackers with certainty. They didn't shoot the Dark Mark above the school," explained James.

"That… is utterly ridiculous, but it does answer a few of my questions," said Matt, sighing. "So basically until we get attacked, there's nothing we can do?"

"Exactly. So until the Dark Lord falls, or until he expands his campaign worldwide, we are unable to act first," said Vicki.

A heavy silence fell over the room as Matt and Emily processed this new, and incredibly unwelcome information. They only stopped when a piece of paper flew in underneath the doorway and landed in Lyle's outstretched hands. He read it and a smile broke out across his face.

"Dr. Tavoularius would like to meet with us," said Lyle. "All of us."

Bemused, Matt and Emily followed Lyle as they made their way through the halls of Seaside, past various paintings who eyed them sleepily as they wandered past. They crossed the dark grounds and headed to the central building, going to the second floor and to the expansive Principal's Office. Lyle knocked on the door no less than 20 times until Dr. T's bright voice told them to enter.

"We've arrived!" announced Lyle, gliding in and taking his usual perch on the corner of the desk.

"Oh, good, you received my note!" said Dr. T., smiling. "We've got some good news for our former Hogwarts students."

Matt and Emily glanced at each other and back to Dr. T.'s smiling face, grinning at them between two large-backed chairs that faced her desk. James and Vicki looked as confused as Matt and Emily. Then, the two people sitting in the chairs stood up and came around to where Matt and Emily could see them.

It was the Ravenclaw newlyweds, Jack Hacker and Melody Moon.

They screamed and ran to each other embracing and clapping each other on the back. Jack was in hysterics about the look on their faces, and Melody was smiling so widely that it seemed to actually be hurting her face a little bit. When they calmed down and introduced each other all around, they got the full story.

"We finally escaped," said Melody. "Dad and Mom started talking about this big vacation we were planning over Christmas, to celebrate mine and Jack's wedding. They spread it around for weeks, all this nonsense about our huge trip to Christmas Island and all that."

"Then, yesterday, Melody's mother came to Hogwarts and picked us and Isabel up, something about a family emergency because a great aunt was on her deathbed," said Jack, smiling. "Snape couldn't do a thing about it but let us go, but you could tell he didn't believe her. But you don't say no to Jaqlyn Moon…"

"And when we got to my house, Jack's parents were there too. And… well… we escaped. I think someone was following us for a while, but we had some of our servants used as decoys and I think it confused them. Oh, they're all okay," said Melody, seeing the scandalized looks from Matt and Emily. "They all are in hiding now. The Moon family has all but disappeared from the world."

"Lillian will be pleased to have more Hogwarts friends, I think," said Matt, nodding.

"I think she'll be pleased to have more friends that aren't Nayoko in general," said Emily.

"As you know, we start our Thanksgiving Break tomorrow," said Dr. T., cutting in before anyone else could badmouth her students. "As none of you will be returning home for it, I invite you to our home for a feat. Jack, your sister will be joining us."

"What about Siyon?" asked Matt.

"She's returning to her own parents' house with her brother. It's for the safety of Jack's parents; if the Hackers are under any sort of surveillance, it's best to keep them apart for a couple of weeks until things die down," said Dr. T. "Jack will room with James, and Vicki and Melody will share a dorm as well. Do you have any questions?"

"Yes, actually," said Matt, his mouth going dry. "Dr. T… we… that is Emily and I… we've got… well we just want to…"

"We're coming clean about everything that happened last year and what we've got to do about it," said Emily, again cutting across the stutters. "We think you, Lyle, and a couple of other teachers should at least know the whole story."

"Thank you for telling me," said Dr. T. "I'm happy we're getting this out of the way sooner rather than later. I will call a meeting first thing tomorrow, before we head home. I will be bringing Professors Elliot and Briggs. I think that's all we should start with; Lady Shandra will probably already have foreseen this conversation as it is…"

The next morning, Lady Shandra stood in Dr. T.'s room, wearing an even more holier-than-thou look than usual on her face. Damascus Elliot and Lt. Briggs seemed very uncomfortable with her presence, but Dr. T. and Lyle had all but burst into laughter when they saw her waiting for them precisely half an hour before the meeting was due to start.

"Well, now that everyone's here… let's all have a seat and some breakfast," she said.

She waved her wand and conjured up a table for them in the corner of her mammoth office. With a loud crack, six house elves appeared and placed breakfasts on the table before them. Matt and Emily, joined by James and Vicki, took a seat on the far left of the table; the professors all took the far right, except for Lyle, who sat directly in the middle and tried to engage both sides in meaningful conversation. But, due to the awkward situation they were about to discuss and the early hour after a night of restless sleep, virtually nothing came from the students' side. Elliot and Briggs both seemed to just want to get the meeting out of the way so they could just go home. Finally, Dr. T. had the elves whisk away the plates and they got down to business.

"We've only gotten part of the story from the A.W.A. I'm afraid," said Dr. T. "So, if you don't mind, please start from the very beginning. No detail is unimportant, but it won't leave this room."

After a moment's hesitation, Matt and Emily launched into their long, rambling tale. They talked about how Emily and Seth used to be very good friends, and how, towards the end of the year, he began to change. They learned about the Prophecy involving Seth and his father, and the apparent outcome of it. They told them about the year previous, how their daughter had been placed in Hogwarts under an assumed name and identity, yet how they had still managed to infiltrate the school and murder Professor Dumbledore, as well as the duel Matt and Emily had had with the two McGuires. They told them about the strange magic they'd used, and how Lyle had been trying to help them relearn it all year; their motivation being the warnings that it was probably going to be the best way to defeat the McGuires… and that they were trying to learn it as well.

Throughout the story, the professors listened intently. It was hard to gauge the reactions of most of them; Lady Shandra, Lt. Briggs, and Damascus Elliot all had amazing poker faces. Dr. T. kept her face screwed up in concentration the entire time, focusing intently on Matt and Emily over her folded hands. Only Lyle seemed to have any discernible reactions, usually of shock or of understanding during the explanations of the modern magic especially. One they had finished, with their outline on what they planned to do about the McGuires and how Shailagh and Judith sensed the dark aura falling around the school, they gave the teachers room to talk.

"I have no doubt that you are perfectly secure at this school," said Dr. T. "The spells and enchantments on the grounds here at Seasdide easily rival those of any of our top schools, and can hold a candle to Hogwarts as well. That being said… if they were able to properly learn and utilize this Modern Magic, there's no telling what they could do to negate the enchantments."

"And to utilize this sort of thinking… while forward and possibly incredibly powerful, it is subject to the A.W.A.'s rules and regulations on experimental magic," said Professor Elliot. "Of course, in such a small group I see no reason to have to inform them, but my point is that requesting help from the A.W.A. in the form of further research into these principals is all but out of the question."

"Precisely what I figured, which is why I didn't give you any of the details," said Lyle, chuckling. "Frankly, it's hard to know who to trust when half of your workforce gets replaced overnight."

"Be that as it may, we have to be very careful, if we're going to proceed with this," said Dr. T. "I will devote some of my spare time into looking into other schools to assess their own readiness, and to see if anyone matching the McGuires' descriptions has been sighted. I'm certain my husband, as well as Katrina's parents, will be more than helpful in those endeavors…"

"What can we do on our end?" asked Emily, thrilled that they weren't being shut down at the onset for a change.

"Yeah, we want to help fight!" Matt exclaimed.

"Until we know more about the situation, your only job is to further your studies, both traditional and modern," said Lady Shandra, sweeping forward. "I have my Top Five on constant monitoring, meditation, and sensing. In this situation, we must all play to our strengths. Yours, it would seem, is to master this magic. That is the role you must play."

"And what is our role, then?" asked James.

"Bodyguards, as per usual. For right now, James and Vicki, I must request you merely keep a low profile and act as students," said Dr. T. "That includes in Dueling, James."

"Yeah, yeah, sorry," said James, grinning.

"Now then… moving forward, we need to formulate a plan to combat this, as well as an emergency plan in the event the school is compromised. I suggest—" began Dr. T.

"W-wait a minute!" snarled Lt. Briggs, suddenly. "You… you can't be serious! Do you even realize how many A.W.A. laws and decrees we're breaking here?"

"Lieutenant Briggs, I understand your concern, being a supplementary staff member whose loyalty is obviously more to the A.W.A.," said Professor Elliot. "However, you must understand—."

"No, _you_ have to understand!" Briggs snarled. "_All_ of you! You're putting your lives and the lives of everyone at this school in danger! You _can't_ just go around practicing hokey magic without proper authority and precautions! Not to mention the fact that you're considering starting an international incident over a personal vendetta-!"

"Well, when _you_ get attacked and have your life threatened, and when people start dying for _you¸ then_ maybe you can decide to tell the 'proper authorities' and have them help you!" shouted Emily.

"Yes," said Matt, arms shaking. "If we told them what was going on, and what we'd been doing, we'd be locked down in some building until the McGuires got caught! And, besides, whose to say they don't already have spies in the A.W.A.? We want to have these spells and powers so that we can defend this school and our friends, especially if it's against magic we've never seen before!"

"This is insanity!" cried Briggs. "Who the hell do you think you are, making such a decision? Your husband may have big connections in the A.W.A., but so do I, and you better believe I'm going to report this madness to my superiors."

He turned to leave but found himself blocked by Lady Shandra. Her wand was drawn. Briggs drew his with lightning-fast speed, but turned to see that everyone else in the room had their wands turned on him, even James and Vicki. Matt and Emily were pulled out of the line of fire by the two as Dr. T. stood up and walked forward.

"Konrad… I'm sorry to have to do this. I really thought you would have been more assistance to us, as a Dueling professor…" she said, softly.

"You're mad! You're insane! I knew there were fishy things going on here, but never once, Josephine, did I think you'd stoop so low as to-,"

"_Silencio_," hissed Lady Shandra, silencing him.

"_Petrificus Totalus_," said Professor Elliott, effectively binding Lt. Briggs in place.

Lt. Briggs was caught by surprise, his hulking frame frozen together. His eyes darted around, wide with panic and sweat pouring down his face. He faced Dr. T as she walked forward, her eyes still full of sadness.

"Konrad, you understand why we're doing this, I know you do," she said, her voice soft and motherly. "I would never put my students in harm's way if I didn't think that we could properly defend them. And… you also know why I can't let you report this to the A.W.A. just yet. In the future, perhaps… but… this is a chance for us to possibly learn more about magic than we've had the opportunity to do in centuries. And I can't let you sabotage that."

For the briefest of moments, she turned her gaze to her fellow staff members, then to Matt and Emily. Out of the corner of their eyes, they saw Lady Shandra nod to their Principal. She let out a sigh and raised her wand and pointed it right between his eyes.

"_Obliviate_."

**Author's Note: **

**Next update next week. Or sooner if possible. Fun times!**


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter Seven: Thanksgiving Break

Matt and Emily had a hard time even looking at Dr. Tavoularius after the incident in her office. Their minds kept replaying it in their minds, watching Lt. Briggs' eyes go crossed as he slumped to the ground right after the powerful Memory Charm had been placed on him. There was a blur of activity as Lady Shandra and Professor Elliot made to have Lt. Briggs carefully and quietly returned to his own office so that nobody would be any the wiser. James and Vicki steered them out and back to the dorms to pack their bags for the short stay at Ramirez's house.

After five futile minutes of aimlessly setting books in his bag, James finally sighed and told Matt to sit on a chair. He waved his wand and all of Matt's books and clothes neatly found their place in one of three bags. Matt, meanwhile, couldn't stop looking at his hands, and how badly they were shaking. His heart was still pounding, nearly half an hour after the whole incident went down in the office.

Emily wasn't doing much better. Vicki kept a close eye on her until she finally realized that Emily was trying to stuff Red Wing's enormous cage into a bag a quarter the size before she calmly told her to sit down and let her enlarge the bag before she tried that. Red Wing snapped his beak at the new girl, but Vicki fixed him with a deadly stare and he turned his back to her.

"You're gonna have to get over that, you know," said James. "We couldn't let him go without a memory wipe."

"Yeah, I know," said Matt. "But I still don't like it…"

"You get used to it, actually," said Vicki, shrugging. "It's sucky and awkward the first couple of times but after a while it gets to the point where you don't even mind anymore."

"I suppose not…" muttered Emily. "And I do realize we needed him to… you know… stay quiet… but that doesn't mean I like how everyone just goes around throwing Memory Charms down whenever it suits their fancy."

"And let me guess, you're worried about the slippery slope of where it will stop, yeah?" asked James. "Don't worry, bro, Dr. T would never do anything that would cause actual harm to a person. She's brilliant and calculating, but she's also one of the nicest women I've ever met."

"It's funny," Matt muttered. "Emily and I can talk the big game about how we just want to fight and learn this magic and defeat the McGuires… but… at least for me, I don't know if I could actually kill someone when the time came to it."

"It seems like it would be a lot of bad karma," said Emily, shrugging. "Don't get me wrong, if my life or someone I cared about was threatened, I'd have no problem doing it. But it feels like too many innocent people are getting involved and I'm not doing enough."

"Here's what I think," said Vicki, bracingly. "We all have our parts to play in this mission. James and I are in charge of keeping you guys safe from whatever may come. Dr. T is in charge of her students, and, by extension, your safety as well. The Lady Shandra Seers are in charge of monitoring and espionage. So, what you and Matt need to do, is find your part and put all of your effort into it."

"If you try to micromanage and think of everything, you're gonna drive yourself insane," James said. "Isn't it better to just pick one thing and focus on it?"

"Maybe," Matt said. "Even if that mission is just to do my schoolwork and learn Modern Magic…"

"Is that really going to be enough?" asked Emily. "What happens if-."

"You can ask about 'what-if's until the day you die and you'll still get nowhere near every possible scenario," said Vicki.

"That's why you've got a lot of other people who are making those plans and coming up with those scenarios," said James. "And that's why you need to focus on what you can do; what you're best at."

"… Well, when you put it that way… I suppose you're right," said Matt.

"And if you don't fulfill your side of this, how are you going to account for those people who have lost their memories, or suffered, or even been killed indirectly for you? If we don't stop the McGuires, who knows how much longer it'll be until the Dark Lord does come across the ocean to find you guys, or to conquer the remaining wizarding world?" said Vicki.

"… True story," said Emily, finally standing up. "All right. Let's go meet up with the boys and get going…"

Ramirez, Xavier, Katrina, Jack, Melody, and especially the newly-arrived Shailagh seemed able to sense the dying uneasiness in Matt and Emily as they lined up to take the Floo Journey to the Tavoularius house, but they had no intention of letting anybody see it as they put on masks of excitement at the upcoming meal. After a brief pause and a final round of enchantments around the school, Dr. T waltzed in, waving good-bye to Lady Shandra and Professor Elliot as they exited her main office. She came over to them and pitched some Powder into the fireplace. One-by-one, the new guests disappeared into the fire and spun away towards the Tavoularius household. Finally, only Matt, Emily, and Dr. T remained.

"I know what must have happened earlier was a shock to you, and probably very upsetting. For that, I do apologize," she said, back in the mothering tone. "But understand me when I say that these means will justify the end we need to provide a safeguard for the entire wizard population, especially those here at Seaside."

"Yeah… James talked to me already. I think I understand where you're coming from," said Matt.

"Me too, courtesy of Vicki," said Emily. "We'll try to stop worrying so much about making all the plans and focus instead on our studies, and, of course, Lyle's Modern Magic."

"That's all I can hope for. I promise, whenever I need your assistance, I will call on you to help me with planning things. I won't leave you in the dark and I certainly won't try and prevent you from taking an active part in locating and subduing the McGuires… and even the Dark Lord himself if it becomes necessary," their Principal said, smiling. "And it goes without saying that I don't want anyone else to know of this besides James and Vicki. At least for the time being."

"We understand," said Matt. "Let's go before they start to wonder what's keeping us."

"Yes, let's," said their teacher, stepping into the fire.

"About time!" said Ramirez as the remaining Seasiders emerged from the fireplace. "What took you so long?"

"Matt dropped his bag and everything spilled out of it," said Emily. "Then he begged us to wait for him so he didn't get lost."

"… yeah… it was a mess… too many Potions notes…" Matt muttered, his face reddening with embarrassment.

Dr. T. and Emily smirked at him and the entire group chuckled and giggled as they spread out around the house to put their things away. Dr. T had magically enlarged Ramirez's bedroom so that he, Matt, and Jack could all fit comfortably in it, while a magically-roomy guest bedroom served as the sleeping quarters for Melody, Shailagh, Emily, and Vicki.

That evening, they had a wonderful Thanksgiving Feast. The table was extended to seat the insane numbers of people. In addition to the seven members of the Tavoularius family, seven Seaside students, two Aurors-in-training, and Shailagh, Katrina's family had also made an appearance, adding her mother, father, and toddler brother to the mix. Dr. T enchanted the dishes to float lazily around the able, allowing everyone to take whatever food they wanted as it passed.

Even for those with a lot on their minds, it wasn't necessary to feign enjoyment at the meal; the boisterous Mr. Tavoularius and chatty Mr. Sanders, aided by a couple of butterbeers and a shot or two of firewhiskey, shared a lot of hysterical stories from work, their families, and their youth. Dr. T and Katrina's mother made sure to keep up a stream of gossip on people they knew from work or around town. Further down, Shailagh told a few humorous stories of recent Lady Shandra meltdowns at the increasing A.W.A. and A.W.E. visits, while Melody and Jack filled them in on some of their parents' adjustments to American life in their new town.

Once desert had been served and the dishes were floating in and out of the sink while scrubbers went to work on them in the kitchen, the party started to break off. Romulus and Remus, the Tavoularius twins, along with Katrina's brother Kirin, all began to chase after the dog again, shooting around the house as the dog resigned himself to another night as a pack animal.

Mr. Tavoularius surprised them by suggesting that they all have a drink or two with them, to unwind after such a busy week.

"You… you realize none of us are old enough, right?" asked Matt.

"… wait, what? What's the drinking age in the USA?" asked Jack.

"21," replied Emily.

"Well that's a load of horse sh-," Jack began.

"I won't tell if you won't tell," said Katrina's dad, winking widely and obviously.

"Besides, who here hasn't already gotten at least a little tipsy, hm?" asked Dr. T, smirking.

Ramirez and Xavier grinned sheepishly as their mother's eyes bore into them, though she giggled. The former Hogwarts students had spent many a time in the Three Broomsticks, so they were no strangers to alcohol. Only Katrina and Shailagh raised their hands.

"What can I say? Being an Auror-in-Training is hard work," said Vicki, shrugging.

"And if I'm old enough to risk my life fighting Dark Wizards, then, by God, I _will_ have a drink!" exclaimed James.

"That's the spirit!" Katrina's father said, clapping him on the back. "I like this guy!"

"Arnold, don't you think we should be setting a better example for the children?" asked Katrina's mother.

"Bah, don't worry about it! They aren't going anywhere!" replied Katrina's dad. "C'mon, Amy, let them have their fun!"

"All right, just don't get too crazy," she said, opening her bag. "I've made a few potions that'll clear your head when the need arises."

"Yes, moderation for the young'ns," said Dr. T. "Start with one. And help yourself, we've got a wide variety of stuff to choose from…"

They didn't need telling twice. Their liquor cabinet was a surprising mixture of recognizable Muggle and wizarding brews, some more potent than others. Jack and Xavier hungrily compared several types of whiskey, while Matt, Ramirez, and Melody started grabbing different flavors of wizard vodka from the shelf, passing them along to the central island in the kitchen. Emily and Katrina (somewhat hesitantly) went for the rum.

"Dude, Teruhiko is gonna be pissed that he's not here!" said Ramirez, laughing. "He would love the chance to drink with his teachers."

"Might want to keep Nayoko and Lillian out of the loop about this, though," said Emily. "Not sure how they'd react to a teacher supplying for us."

"Aren't you guys gonna drink anything?" Melody asked the two Aurors-in-Training, as she poured about half a cup of a green-colored liquid from the bottle she was holding.

James and Vicki looked at each other. "Uh… well, one of us should probably stay sober… on duty and all that," said James.

"Well, actually, I don't really want anything right now," said Vicki, shrugging. "So if you want to drink tonight, go ahead and you can take the overnight guard tomorrow."

"You are awesome," said James, hugging Vicki briefly (again bringing the shell-shocked look back to her face) before flying over to join Jack and Melody in mixing something that was probably a lot stronger than it should have been.

After the adults were certain that nobody was going to accidentally give themselves alcohol poisoning, they retired to the sitting room at the front of the house. The students, meanwhile, headed for the sunroom on the back of the deck. The nearly-all-glass walls and roof gave a spectacular view of the brilliantly-colored sunset. Katrina quickly conjured a few chairs before surrendering her wand to her mother, while Dr. T collected the rest. No magic was to be allowed while drinking.

The small talk continued, carrying over from dinner. For an hour, they talked about their respective schools, filling each other in on details of their lives before they met each other. After their first drinks were over, nearly everyone was feeling pretty good (except for Katrina, who was proving to be a lightweight, and Melody, who severely over-powered her first drink), so they returned to the kitchen to make another. With no adult supervision, the drinks were much stronger the second time around.

"What the hell are you drinking?" asked Emily, twisting her body around in the chair to face Matt as he took a sip.

"It's a Faux-White Russian," Matt replied, grinning widely. "Milk plus vodka. No Kahlua, because I hate coffee."

"That sounds REPULSIVE!" Emily said, raising her hand in a very wavering fashion to push on his glasses.

"And you are drunk," Matt replied, patting her head.

"I am NOT!" Melody suddenly cried, elbowing Matt and nearly making him drop his drink.

"Don't think he was talking to you, darling," said Jack, as he threw his arm roughly around his wife. "Someone's gettin' belligerent!"

"Is she always like this when she drinks?" asked Ramirez, whose cup was giving off a strong vapor.

"Trust me. She's usually worse," said Jack, laughing appreciatively.

Vicki seemed to be enjoying the show as it continued its downward spiral. Emily, Melody, and now Katrina were all pretty well buzzed, while everyone's tongues were mostly loosened and topics turned more to personal matters, such as love. As the only married couple in the room, Jack and Melody started to become the target of a lot of interesting questions.

"Much as I would just love to hear the intimate details of my brother's love life," Shailagh suddenly announced, setting her cup of some swirling concoction on the table. "I think I'm going to arbitrarily demand a change of subject. When are your guys' exams?"

"Like… mid… uh… December I think?" said Ramirez, shaking his head and running his fingers through his shaggy hair for the eighth time in a five-minute span. "I can't … remember haha!"

"Jesus, your mother's the Principal! You should have that memorized!" said Jack, punching Ramirez on the arm.

"Hey, Jack, why don't you go-," Ramirez began, but winced as Shailagh pinched his arm and shot him the briefest of glares. "… go… take… a shot with me. C'mon, who's up for a shot of straight fire whiskey, huh?"

With quick whoops, Melody, Jack, Xavier, Ramirez, and James all headed for the kitchen. Katrina, sighing, went to supervise, stumbling as she stepped up back into the house. Shailagh took a long drink from her glass, before setting it on the table in front of her.

"Now, while we got a couple of minutes… how did the meeting this morning go?" she asked, leaning forward.

"Well, basically, it was a trainwreck!" Emily said, leaning in close to Shailagh. "Like… it was great with Dr. T obviously and your headmaster, Lady Shan-Shan…"

"God if she could only hear you call her that…" muttered Shailagh, smiling.

"BUT THEN!" Matt exclaimed, leaning in and across Emily's chair so that he was right next to them. "Then Lt. Briggs was all, 'ohgodnowhyisthishappeningyou'reallinsane…'"

"Your FACE is close to my FACE!" whined Emily, pushing Matt's head away from hers. "But yeah… he like got a Memory Charm and that's where the meeting pretty much ended."

"So you know what it looks like to see someone get their Memory wiped. And I assume you've come to terms with it, mostly, judging by your… appearances," she said, watching as Emily stood up wobbly and Matt tried to crawl back into his chair.

"Yeah, we gave them a good talking too," said Vicki, who was still perched on one of the windowsills and looking into the kitchen. "And they're coming back now, so let's change the subject again."

Emily nearly collided with Jack as he came flying out of the kitchen, but was luckily caught by James, who literally swept her off her feet and twirled her around before sitting in a chair with him on her lap. She laughed and didn't seem exactly sure what was happening. Everyone else wandered in, Melody stumbling and losing a shoe as she made the step down into the sunroom.

"So how was it?" Matt asked.

"We took TWO!" cried Ramirez, laughing. "Well… most of us did… haha…"

"Yeah, yeah, just say it, I pussed out and only took one," said Jack, laughing. "Ramirez barely got one and half… and then fuckin' James and Melody took three in a row!"

"We are CHAMPIONS!" roared Melody, slapping a high-five to James that nearly missed and sent her crashing into Jack's lap instead.

Emily finally freed herself from James' grip, saying she had to use the bathroom, while Matt decided to go make himself one more drink to catch up with the others. Katrina followed them in and then, as they were less-than-silently making their way through the kitchen, she put her finger to her lips and had them follow her around to the stairwell in the center of the house. They could hear the voices of the adults coming from in there.

"… haha well, I wouldn't worry, they've got it locked down so tightly now that nobody is getting in or out of Seaside or Salem without putting their very lives on the line," came the voice of Mr. Tavoularius.

"Yeah… and those reports of torturing, thankfully, turned out to be unrelated. So only two people are missing, one dead, and supposedly five tortured to some degree in regards to those… Mc…Gyvers, whatever their names are," said Katrina's dad.

"McGuires, and yes, their movements seemed to have stopped for the time being," said Katrina's mother. "So we can at least rest assured that things are going a little more smoothly this time around…"

"That's okay. Oh and by the way, Emily, you're breathing really loudly," called Dr. T. from the living room.

"That's totally not me, it's Matt!" Emily replied. Then realized what she'd done and her eyes widened in terror.

"Thought so. Come on in if you want to chat; I promise we won't bite," replied the Principal.

They entered the living room, fidgeting as the four adults smiled up at them from their seats. They each held a smoking drink in their hands. Behind them, they could see the dog laying on the ground, swarmed over by Romulus, Remus, and Kirin, while Isis scratched him behind the ears.

"Sorry for eavesdropping, we were just curious," Matt said.

"Actually I'm surprised you could hear us," said Katrina. "I thought we were being really quiet."

"Supersensory Charm so I can monitor you in the kitchen," replied Dr. T. "Though you might want to let Melody and Xavier know that I can hear them out on the porch too."

"Will do," said Emily. "And thank you so much for letting us stay here… and drink."

"Think nothing of it," said Mr. Tavoularius. "We hope you're enjoying yourself."

"Especially given how trying the past couple of days have been," said Dr. T.  
"You're doing what you can; we understand," said Matt, sitting down on the ground abruptly.

"Well, I'm sure you don't want to sit in here with the stuffy old adults…" said Katrina's father. "Why don't you guys head back out to the porch. We're gonna head out in a little while, Katrina, so pace yourself."

"Understood," said Katrina, leading Matt and Emily back into the hallway.

Emily tottered off to the bathroom while Matt and Katrina returned to the kitchen. While Matt poured himself a new mixture of flavored vodkas, Katrina took one of her mother's drinks out and took a swig.

"I do love the feeling of being buzzed…" she said. "But I think I should get back to being sober… so nobody gets hurt."

There was a crash from the sun room followed by a peal of laughter from what they assumed was Melody. They glanced through the kitchen window and could vaguely see Melody laying on top of a knocked over chair, which had pinned a laughing Ramirez and Shailagh underneath it, while Jack was trying to pull his wife back up, laughing so hard he could barley stand.

"Too late," Matt said, simply.

About twenty minutes later, Dr. T wandered out onto the porch to let them know it was last call and that she'd be locking the liquor cabinet up in five minutes. She also requested that everyone keep the noise down when heading into the house since Romulus, Remus, and Isis were all going to bed, as well as the Tavoularius parents once things had calmed down.

Everyone but Melody, Shailagh, and Katrina poured another round of drinks (making them strong as they could) before making their way slowly back to the porch. After Dr. T checked on them one more time, she conjured up sleeping bags so that they could decide where to pass out as the night wore on. After a while, Xavier decided he wanted to go to bed and headed back inside the house, taking a big gulp of the potion left behind by Katrina's mom as he went.

They nursed the last drinks, trying to make it last as long as possible. At about 10:30, Shailagh asked if she could go take a bath while Katrina decided she was going to go back to her house and get a full night's sleep so she could start studying the next morning. After the two girls had gone, the remaining Seasiders started to divvy up their sleeping bags while balancing drinks in their hands, which caused a fair amount of spillage.

"No!" said Melody, when Matt suggested they just ignore it. "We CAN'T do that!"

"Yeah!" Emily agreed. "'Cuz that's ALCOHOL ABUSE."

And that's how Melody and Jack ended up sucking the spilled alcohol off the floor. Which is about the time that Vicki decided she was going to go write a report and that she'd be back to stand watch in an hour or so. Which left the six fairly inebriated teenagers in the sunroom, as the stars twinkled overhead.

"The room is starting to spin… I think that means I've had too much," Emily said, as the stars above her began to swirl.

"That just means you're doing it _right!_" Jack said, laughing and thrashing as Melody started to tickle his sides.

"And I'm cold," said Emily, shivering. "I think I'm gonna go into the main house area and go to bed," she said. "Good niiiiiight everyone!"

She picked up her sleeping bag and drug it with her into the kitchen, using the wall for balance as the room didn't seem to want to stop spinning. She started her precarious trek up the stairs, noticing that James was close behind, watching to make sure she didn't fly backwards down the stairs and break her neck.

"I'm okay, I promise," she slurred, petting the side of his face and nearly overbalancing on the top step. "But thank you for watching out for me."

"I know," he said, pulling her into a hug as she almost fell. "But I will watch out for you, always."

"Always!" Emily said, bursting into quiet giggles as they made it to the girls' room. "That makes us sound like super creepers."

"Here, you get changed and I'll go get you one of those potions from Kat's parents," said James. "It'll make the room stop spinning."

"That would probably be for the best, I feel a bit bleeehhh," said Emily, collapsing on one of the beds.

After she watched the ceiling fan spin in the darkness for a short time, James reappeared with the drinks. They each took a full glass of the stuff, which smelled like grass and tasted like mint and rosemary. She shuddered as she felt it hit her stomach, but it started to go to work within minutes and the room stopped spinning, though she still felt numb in her arms and legs.

"It'll take a while to make it through your body," said James. "You'll probably be asleep before it does."

"Thank you," said Emily, smiling at him. "You're very nice."

"My pleasure," said James. "Get some sleep, darlin'. I'll be right here if you need me."

"But Vicki's keeping watch," Emily started to protest. "You should sleep."

"I'll sleep later. Good night," said James.

And just as he said that, Emily realized just how exhausted she was, and felt herself falling into unconsciousness as James settled into a sleeping bag on the floor a few feet away from her bed.

Back outside, Jack, Melody, Matt, and Ramirez lay on their backs, heads inches apart, mumbling and talking about the stars. They'd seen a couple of shooting stars fly by, which made Melody practically shriek with excitement. But, finally, it got a little too dizzying for matt, who sat up. Ramirez followed suit.

"I don't think I've ever been this drunk," said Ramirez, grinning stupidly. "I'm not sure I can even stand up…"

"It's _easy!_" Matt exclaimed. "Look, I'll show you!"

He tried to stand, but Melody swung her leg around and kicked him so his legs gave out and instead he fell forward, half landing on Ramirez and half on Jack, which made Melody literally roll on the floor from laughing so hard. Jack untangled himself and dove at Melody and the two crashed into a chair while Matt and Ramirez attempted to pull themselves up off each other.

"Really, Matt, I leave for five minutes and you can't keep your hands off my man?" came Shailagh's voice. "Do you really want to mess with a psychic?"

Shailagh was back, dressed in a long, thick night robe and with a towel wrapped around her hair. Melody, Jack, and Matt froze and looked at each other, grinned widely, and turned their heads drunkenly towards Ramirez, who was blushing.

"What'd you just say, sis?" asked Jack.

"I knewwwwww ittt," sang Melody. "You looooooove him; you want to daaaaaaaate him; you want to sleeeeeep with himmmm…"

"Th-that's not what I-," Shailagh began, her own cheeks flushing.

"You said _'my man,' _Shaliagh," said Melody, rolling across the floor to tap her feet. "Youuu said it not meeeee…"

"So, Ramirezzzz," said Jack, stumbling over and throwing his arm roughly around the teen. "When you gonna ask my sister outttt?"

"I… uh…" said Ramirez, running his hand through his mess of a hair again.

"I think I'm gonna be sick," said Matt, suddenly.

"Oh shit… Shailagh! Help him get a drink," said Jack, leaping away from Matt and Ramirez.

"Don't puke on meeeee," whined Melody, her hands flying over her face.

"C'mon, then," said Shailagh, grabbing Matt. "Ramirez, help me with him."

Once they were inside, they helped Matt into a chair and Shailagh handed him a cup of the potion from Katrina's parents. Matt smiled and set the cup gently on the table.

"I was lying," he said. "It was my _genius_ _plan_ to get you guys outta that situation. You can thank me later~!"

"Oh… well, thank you," said Ramirez, patting him on the shoulder.

Shailagh smiled. "I should have noticed… you can be much craftier than I think I gave you credit for."

"I am really tired though," said Matt, after he took a quick gulp of the drink. "I think I'm going to crash…"

"Yeah… I think it's about time we hit the hay, too," said Ramirez. "I've got six essays to write…"

He took a mighty swig of the potion, too, and set it back on the counter. He then went back to the sun room/porch and grabbed a couple of sleeping bags, stumbling under them as he tried to walk through the kitchen without slipping and falling on his face. Shailagh sighed.

"You had too much," she said, taking the bags from him. "Thank goodness you took that potion before you really did get sick… you too, Matt."

"Sorry," said Matt yawning so widely he nearly fell over. "Shouldn't Melody and Jack take some of the potion too?"

"If they feel the need, they'll get it themselves," said Shailagh, icily. "Otherwise, they deserve the hangover."

They headed for the stairs but Matt saw Vicki sitting in the livingroom, working on a report with her wand emitting a bright light. He told Ramirez and Shailagh to head up without him and tottered his way over to see the Auror-in-Training.

"Whatcha workin' on?" he asked.

"Reports," said Vicki, her eyes still reading through a piece of parchment. "Unfortunately I have to use James' notes as well… and… they're a bit hard to read."

"Well you can just use a spell to make it legible!" Matt said, excitedly. "Flitwick showed us last year, back at Hogwarts. I'll show you too!"

But then he remembered that Dr. T had stashed his wand away somewhere. And he didn't have the back-up Arcadian wand with him; that was still in his dorm back at school. Vicki didn't really seem to be paying attention anyway as she scrawled on a new piece of parchment, this one with nearly a foot of text already.

"I'm sorry I'm not very chatty," she said after about a minute of near-silence. "We have to do several different reports each day and with all the excitement the past couple of days, we haven't really had a chance to do them…"

"What do you have to report on? Us?" asked Matt.

"Partly. Your actions, any incidents that you may be a part of, any threats of security to you… and then there's the broader sense: the things Seaside is doing to protect its students and staff, any breeches in the security, daily reports on what James and I do for our training… honestly it's more parchment work than it's worth," said Vicki.

"Surely you don't have to do it now," said Matt. "I mean… well I guess it's more fun than standing watch… but when will you sleep?"

"I won't tonight," said Vicki, taking a flask out of her pocket. "We have these potions that basically give our bodies the same effect of an 8-hour sleep."

"That sounds pretty neat!" Matt said. "Could we get them and just stay up forever?"

"That would be unwise," said Vicki. "They're meant for short-term uses of no more than a week… and even then, that's only if absolutely necessary. There are side-effects from long exposure… not to mention some of the ingredients are heavily controlled by the A.W.A."

Matt yawned widely, suddenly feeling his entire arms and legs go numb. But not the same kind of skin-level numb that he'd felt since they started drinking. Utter exhaustion was creeping through his body as he felt the potion working inside of him. He was less dizzy, too.

"Go to bed," said Vicki. "I appreciate you keeping me company for a few minutes, really, but I've really got to get this paperwork done and you need your sleep."

"Thanks, Vicki," said Matt, standing and walking, much more sturdily, away. "You and James are amazing. I'm sure Emily and I will both be severely in your debt by the time this is over."

"You're welcome," she replied. "Goodnight."

Matt crept upstairs very sneakily (on hands and knees) to Ramirez' room. He quietly pushed open the door and entered the enlarged room. Of the four beds, only one was currently being used, by Ramirez and Shailagh. They were already asleep, his arms wrapped around her thin body. As Matt made his way to his bed, he saw that Shailagh had a smile on her face, which seemed so much more peaceful and human than it ever seemed when she was awake. He smiled to himself and climbed into bed, asleep within seconds of his head hitting the pillow.

!~*

The next morning, most of Dr. T's guests were back in the kitchen fairly early, eating a delicious breakfast prepared by her and Mr. Tavoularius in the early hours of the morning. Matt, Emily, Ramirez, and James were completely refreshed; it was as if they'd done like Shailagh and Vicki and foregone the drinking entirely.

Melody and Jack looked like death. She seemed like she could hardly stand to look at anything light and Jack kept his head on the counter with his hands clamped over it whenever he wasn't actively putting food into his mouth. Matt could see the tiniest traces of triumph and glee on Shailagh's face as she looked at their suffering.

"I understand we've only got four days left here for Fall/Thanksgiving Break," said Dr. T. "But I advise you all to get a start on your homework and your studying today. That goes double for our newest students."

She didn't need to tell them twice, but the groans and sighs of despair were enough to brighten Dr. T's day and she soon started meandering around the kitchen, whistling a high-pitched tune that seemed to cause Jack immense pain. This was tripled by the arrival of the twins and Xavier, who promptly took his breakfast up to his room and locked the door. Not long after, drumming could be heard pounding through the house.

"I think I'm legit dying," Melody moaned.

"I will hear those sounds until I die," Jack said, hoarsely.

"Oh, you big whiners," teased Dr. T. "Here, drink this."

She gave them another potion, a green one that gave off a strong odor they couldn't quite place. Melody and Jack glanced at each other, shrugged, and took a drink. Within a few minutes, they seemed more alert, awake, and talkative. The drumming didn't even seem to hurt Jack's ears or head any longer.

"So, what should we start on first, then?" Emily, asked gloomily, as she sorted through the books in her bag.

"Might as well start with Abjuration; it's the only class we all have together, yeah?" Matt said, Summoning his school supplies from the far desk.

Dr. T had assigned three essays and a reading for their short break, much to their distress. The main focus of their studies was on defensive area spells, setting up forcefielkds and general, open areas for defense and protections. They sat sprawled throughout the kitchen, living room, and sunroom, scribbling away at their essays. Emily, Matt, and Vicki were among the first ones done; James and Melody finished not long after. Poor Jack was barely halfway done when the clock in the main family room struck two PM, and by then everyone was almost done with the reading assignment for the class as well.

"I can't wait any longer; I've got to start working on my assignments for Magical Theory," Emily said, after five agonizing minutes of watching Jack make edits on his essay.

"Yeah, and I want to get my Ancient Runes translations done before the sun sets today," said Matt.

"I can help you with that," said Ramirez, taking out his dictionaries. "I think we best just split up."

So they did. Matt, Vicki, and Ramirez, with Shailagh joining them, sat at the large table in the dining room, papers and books spread haphazardly all over. Emily, tailed by James and Jack, worked on their Potions assignments, while Melody sketched out her Astrology assignments while taking in the weak November sun in the glass room.

By dinner, everyone was so burnt out on assignments and reading and homework that they were even rowdier at that meal than they'd been for Thanksgiving. Even still, after the meal of leftover turkey and potatoes, they returned back to their studies, churning out more readings and assignments as the sun set and the stars came back out overhead.

"That's enough of that bullshit," said Jack, finally snapping shut his Abjuration books.

"You finally finished that essay, huh?" joked Emily, looking up from her Transmutation diagrams that she and James had practically been falling asleep on top of.

"Yeah… wait, don't make it sound like I did nothing else!" Jack said, throwing a crumpled piece of parchment at her.

"I think we did pretty good today, actually," said Melody. "We've earned a break."

"You know what… I think I'm going to meditate," said Shailagh. "Anybody want to join?"

She fixed Matt and Emily with one of her strong gazes. They got the hint; luckily, nobody else wanted to join them, instead opting for a game of Exploding Snap. The other three went out to the sunroom, where Shailagh conjured up a few comfortable, simple mats.

"One of the things Lyle will talk to you about at the next meeting is the importance of meditation," said Shailagh, sitting cross-legged on her mat. "And from experience in my own studies, I can say for sure that it will definitely be an asset to enhancing your own magic, both traditional and Modern."

"You've seen our next lesson, then?" asked Matt, excitedly. "What does he ask us? We can be ready if he-."

"I haven't actually had a vision; I simply have a strong premonition that associates itself with meditation," replied Shailagh, shrugging. "As such, I suggest you practice your meditations nightly until the next meeting."

"Is this just like usual relaxation meditation, or is there more to it?" asked Emily, slipping off her shoes and taking the mat that gave her a perfect view of the hazy moon.

"It's a bit more than that, but, for now, meditate as you usually have," said Shailagh. "Focus solely on your breathing, and nothing else. You'll feel the influence when the time comes."

They sat in silence in the sun room. The occasional shouts and yells and snaps from the card game came floating through the doorway. But every time Matt or Emily found their minds wandering, Shailagh would calmly tell them to focus back on their breathing, and to be aware of their bodies.

They sat for nearly an hour and a half. Matt's lower back began to ache and Emily's legs began to grow numb. Finally, Shailagh told them to stand up, stretch, and after a few minutes of that, she vanished the map.

"I didn't really feel like I got any more powerful," said Matt.

"Yeah, my legs are just a little sore now," said Emily.

"It was your first time; you won't notice anything just yet," said Shailagh. "But the less your mind wanders, and the more you properly focus, the sooner you'll recognize it."

They rejoined their friends in time to see the entire deck of cards blow up in Ramirez's hand, singing his eyebrows and blackening two of his fingernails. Dr. T calmly suggested they make it an early night, since they still had plenty of work to do the next couple of days. Still a little fatigued from the previous night, Melody and Jack immediately turned in for the night. Emily, James, and Vicki did a little bit more reading from some of their lighter assignments, while Matt, Ramirez, and Shailagh quietly discussed some Divination assignments, including Matt's Tarot project, until they heard the others heading for bed.

The next day was much of the same: more homework. Katrina showed up a little after lunch and joined their study group. She'd already finished most of her reading assignments, but admitted it was hard to work on essays in her house with Kirin popping in and out of the room every few minutes, occasionally setting something she owned on fire with his uncontrolled magic.

By that night's dinner, almost everyone had completed their main assignments. Only the newest students had make-up work left to complete; Matt, Ramirez, Shailagh, and Katrina all began to study for their upcoming exams instead, which the spent the remainder of the night doing. Once again, Shailagh had them meditate with her, but, as before, nothing seemed to happen except sore bodies.

Katrina arrived early the next day, while Dr. and Mr. T joined her parents and the toddlers out for a play date/get together for local wizard families' kids. They were planning to be gone all day until past dinner, so the kids were left on their own all day. Isis and Xavier both left the house soon after to spend the day with friends, but all the Seaside students managed to do was get a few hours of studying in during the morning.

"We've all pretty much got a handle on what we need to study, I think," said Katrina, finally. "How about we just break off now and enjoy our last day around town? Ramirez and I can show you how to get there."

"Sure," said Matt. "Muggle or wizard town?"

"Muggle, so keep your wands hidden and no magic paraphernalia," said Ramirez, closing his three Herbology books.

Katrina's parents left the van behind, and she had her license on her, so the group piled in and started for the town. It wasn't a long drive; Ramirez's house was on the very outskirts of the residential part of town, and five minutes later they were in the small downtown area, right next to a small river that meandered lazily through the town.

"Shall we split up, then?" asked Matt.

"Sure," said Katrina. "Let's meet back here in four hours or so; we'll pick up dinner on our way back."

Jack and Melody immediately left for the nearby mall. Emily was steered away with James towards a pet store. Ramirez and Shailagh took off for a bookstore. Matt, Katrina, and Vicki went to walk by the river. The sun was out, and there was no wind, so even though it was another chilly late autumn day, it was very pleasant. The multicolored foliage cracked under their feet as they crossed through a small park, heading for the concrete steps that went along the riverbank.

"It's really neat because sometimes when it rains the stairs flood, so instead of the ten big steps you might only see four or five," Katrina explained, as they walked towards the pier.

"It's a very nice town," said Vicki. "It reminds me of our hometown a little."

"Yeah," said Matt. "I hope everyone back home is okay."

"We have no reports that they've discovered anything about your lives before Hogwarts," said Katrina. "My parents promised to tell me if there is anything important you should know. Or… rather… my dad did."

"Somehow I'm not surprised," said Vicki. "I've worked with him several times; he's a favorite among the new recruits especially."

"Have you done a lot of missions or whatever with them?" asked Matt.

"No, I've only crossed paths with the Sanders six or seven times, mostly with Katrina's mother," explained Vicki. "But they're usually in a different division; they're more espionage and intelligence and James and I so far have been more utilized in active combat roles."

"Still… small world," said Matt.

James and Emily spent most of their free time looking at puppies and kittens in the local animal store/shelter. The heavy little old lady behind the counter was happy to give them details on every single animal, all the while restraining a behemoth St. Bernard from jumping on Emily's shoulders.

"Look at the German Shepard," cooed Emily, her face pressed up against the glass.

"They're you're favorites, aren't they?" said James, smiling as the puppy yawned widely and tried to scratch behind his ears.

"Yeah… how'd you know?" asked Emily, giggling as the puppy over-stretched and rolled onto his back in a vain attempt to reach his ears.

"I'm… not really sure, actually," said James. "Just the way you said it… pretty easy to tell."

"Well they are… I wish I could have had a dog at Hogwarts and Seaside… I mean I love Red and all, but nothing beats a puppy," said Emily.

"Yeah… well, once we start dating, we'll get a dog!" James said, grinning widely.

Emily smiled and rolled her eyes, but didn't say anything. He merely chuckled and moved on down the line to look at various other puppies, while the shop owner was pulled along by the St. Bernard, who was sniffing the pocket James' wand was in. She couldn't help but be flattered by James' words, even if they seemed a little… strong, given how little they'd known each other.

"Didn't you say you wanted to hit the bookstore before we left, too?" asked James.

"Oh! Right, yeah," said Emily, snapping out of her reverie. "Let's go."

They saw Shailagh and Ramirez almost instantly after entering. The two were sitting together in the reading area, reading a book together on a loveseat. She was curled up in his arms as he held the book out for both of them.

"That's so cute! When are you guys going to be official?" asked Emily, her voice high and full of bitter sweetness.

"About the same time as you and James I expect," replied Shailagh, not taking her eyes off the book. Ramirez grinned.

"Touché," replied James. "Did you find a good one?"

"Yeah," said Shailagh. "It's horrible. One of those dreadful romance novels that's really popular… it's just amazing how terrible it is."

"And you're reading it together… to share pain? Are you both masochists or something?" asked Emily.

"Misery loves company," said Ramirez, idly turning the page. "What about you guys? What are you looking for?"

"Something to read during Magical Theory and Healing," said Emily, meandering over to the Fantasy section. "Lord knows I'm not paying attention to Goldstein or Ching, especially when I've got Teruhiko or James there to deflect attention off me."

"Don't let Mom hear you say that," said Ramirez. "She wouldn't approve."

"To be fair, neither would the staff about our Thanksgiving exploits," said Emily. "I think I have the upper hand for once."

"That you do," said Ramirez, grinning.

Emily ended up buying eight new books, while James bought a few history texts to peruse during his night guards and classes as well. They sat near Shailagh and James, reading the rest of the afternoon until they decided to head back to the van. They met Jack and Melody first, the former slurping on a smoothie and the latter balancing a smoothie and about six shopping bags on her arms.

"Good haul then, I take it?" asked Emily.

"Eh, so-so. They had a couple of things I can live with," said Melody. "You guys?"

"Enough to get me through the rest of the semester I hope," said Emily.

"Where's everyone else?" asked Ramirez.

"They'll be here soon," said Shailagh, her hand on her forehead. "They were delayed in the return. No prizes for guessing who caused it."

Matt had overbalanced on the pier and almost fell in the river. Unfortunately, they'd been seen and one onlooker completely overreacted and called 911. Vicki and Katrina managed to smooth over the whole situation through suspiciously convenient means, but, not before they had to take a long detour to get back to the van to avoid detection by possible eye-witnesses.

After stopping to pick up six pizzas on the way home, they returned to Ramirez's to eat and get some last-minute studying in. But that quickly gave way to the usual conversations and discussions, as well as making fun of Matt. Shailagh did abruptly leave for meditation (kidnapping Matt, Emily, and Ramirez at the same time), but they ended early when the remaining Tavoularius family members returned from around town.

"How was the play date?" asked Katrina.

"Good. Only several mishaps today instead of the usual dozen or so," said Dr. T, setting a large bottle bag on the table. "And only half of them were caused by Remus and Kirin. Romulus did manage to send the massive koi fish flying through the sky, but we got that under control in no time."

"Did you all finish your homework and studying?" asked Katrina's mom. "Or did you spend the day goofing off?"

"Matt almost drowned in the river in town, but the rest of us behaved," Vicki said, to general amusement of the adults.

"Well, we're going to head back to Seaside early tomorrow," said Dr. T. "Make sure you have everything, okay?"

"Understood," replied the students.

Once more they found themselves sitting on the back porch. It was much darker that night because the clouds had moved in. It was chillier, too, and the wind began to pick up the later it got. Clutching mugs of hot cocoa, the Seaside students sat on the porch, making small talk as usual as they wound down for bed. One-by-one, everyone left to sleep. James was standing watch, so when he left to do his reports, only Matt, Emily, Shailagh, and Ramirez remained.

"Despite the homework it was a pretty nice break… very relaxing," said Matt.

"Yes. I'm glad you were able to have this," said Shailagh, sighing. "Unfortunately, this may be the last bit of relaxing, free time you get until the situation we're in has been resolved."

"I was thinking the same thing," said Emily. "Besides the fact that we've got exams in two and a half weeks, the fact that the staff knows what's going on means we're going to have to be even more careful."

"I don't think the McGuires are going to be quiet for much longer, either," said Ramirez. "From what Shailagh's told me, their ego won't let them stay silent for much longer without a total breakdown on their part."

They fell silent. Having not had to think about their situation for a few days was a nice change, but, as things came rushing back to them, from Lt. Briggs' memory wipe to everything else that was going on, the reality returned. Shailagh was right. Their vacation was over. They had to get serious, because God only knew when their time would come to be challenged by their enemies.


	8. Chapter 8

**Author's Note:**

**Happy Easter everyone! In celebration, here's Chapter 8! Finally at the halfway point of the school year; probably close to it in the story itself as well. Or maybe beyond it. I don't know how many chapters it'll have in the end!**

**Plus, I have something exciting to announce at the end that's unrelated to this! YAY!**

Chapter Eight: Examination

Much of the school entered a panicked flurry of studying upon their return from Christmas break, but none more so than the Seniors. Though there were some who still goofed off on the grounds between classes (Teruhiko and Mike among the worst offenders), many would be gathered in a gaggle of friends and classmates, poring over recent lecture notes and possible topics for upcoming essays.

Having not witnessed such a focused and hysterical studying climate since O.W.L.s, Matt and Emily were a little perplexed as to why it was so chaotic, especially amongst the oldest students.

"Well… for classes next year, you know how you took your A.W.E.s to decide which class you'd qualify for, right?" he said. "Midterms are like that for the seniors… they're the only real exam scores our prospective employers see when we send out resumes and applications for jobs in the spring."

"Oh, that's right," said Emily. "Since Seniors are exempt from A.W.E.s during the spring, right?"

"Correct," said Katrina, her face buried in Advanced Pruning Spells for the Masochistic Gardener. "But there's more to it than that…"

"What?" asked Lillian.

"Not all of the schools do it, but Seaside happens to be one of them," said Nayoko. "Your Mid-Term, or… well, to be honest they should be called Mid-_Year_ examinations… can either move you up or down in the ladder of which classes you can qualify for."

"… que?" asked Matt.

"If you do shitty, you might get bumped down to Academic or Remedial, if you happen to be in AP," said Toshio. "Or, vice-versa, if you do amazing, you might be able to move up from Remedial or Academic."

"So… wait… if I do well enough, I can escape Heckendora?" gasped Matt.

"And I can ditch that wretch Goldstein…" Emily said.

"It's never guaranteed, but, as long as you get an approval from the professors in question and Mom, you should be fine," said Ramirez.

That was all they really needed to know. Matt began to put almost all his effort into his Potions and Ancient Runes, while Emily drug herself through pages of Magical Theory and History notes. Unfortunately, this resolve only lasted two days before it became too tedious and they returned back to the studying of their favorite and stronger subjects.

In the meantime, Matt and Emily continued to meditate nightly, on Shailagh's advice. After a long day of classes and studying, doing nothing and not focusing on anything was actually an extremely welcome change. They would sit in their rooms, blocking out the sounds around them focusing on just their breathing and the feelings around their bodies. Matt found that he was able to more clearly work on his Tarot projects especially after a long meditation, though Emily didn't notice any particularly strong increases in her own work.

Sure enough, their next meeting with Lyle the week before exams led to him explaining the theories of meditation and how it affects magical performance. He had them try different meditation exercises, and was pleasantly surprised by their quick grasp on the proper mind relaxation techniques.

"I've never seen anyone pick it up that quickly," he said, explaining how to focus one's inner energy into a centralized spot. "Have you meditated your whole lives?"

"Just since Thanksgiving, courtesy of Shailagh," said Emily.

"Yeah," Matt added. "She warned us you'd want us to practice it for the next lesson for whatever reason."

"Fantastic!" exclaimed Lyle. "In that case, I think I can skip right in to the proper technical control of magical energy during meditation, as explained by this particularly obscure study from Lithuania…"

"… is there no easier way?" suggested Emily, tentatively.

Lyle stopped, frowned, and looked thoughtfully towards the ceiling. Then, he snapped his fingers.

"There is. Lady Shandra and her Top Five regularly employ the tactics listed in the essay. It might even be better for you to have a practical experience with it, rather than having me up here blabbering about things you barely care about," said Lyle.

"Anything we can do to prepare for it?" asked Matt.

"Nope!" Lyle said, grinning. "Other than keep your usual meditating and exams preparation up. Your futures depend on the results, after all."

When Lady Shandra and the Top Five came into Seaside the following day, they were met in the Entrance Hall by Lyle, who talked excitedly with Lady Shandra. She frowned quite heavily at first, but after a couple of quiet murmurs from her Top Five, she seemed to consent to whatever Lyle's crazy plan was. Matt and Emily glanced at each other as the Seers brushed by them, curious looks being thrown at them as they walked past.

After dinner, Lyle collected them and spirited them away from their friends, off to the top floor of the main classroom building, nearly dead-center in campus. The circular room at the top offered wonderful views of the entire school, as the sun set over the ocean. Dark clouds were moving in, however, and it wasn't long before the last bits of light faded into the dark blue of night.

"Dr. Hourton has spoken very highly of you two," said Lady Shandra, fixing Matt and Emily with that all-to-familiar piercing glare. "Along with the vouching of my cherished students. Though I know you work hard at the subjects that interest you, Warren, I have very little frame of reference for Miss Davis…"

"Much of the same, really," said Emily, shrugging.

"… very well," said Lady Shandra. "We have come to the conclusion that it would be in your best interest to introduce you to our brand of meditation. I feel you will find it more… engaging… than the one you've done previously."

"You may not get it right away, so, for tonight, just do what you're used to doing, and enjoy the experience," said Lyle, conjuring up a few comfortable floor pillows for them to sit on.

They awkwardly crossed their legs and stretched before sitting on their pillows. Though Lyle's frame was still slack and laid-back, the Lady Shandra Academy group was quite possibly more rigid than any human body ever should be. Matt and Emily attempted to emulate it, but were quickly admonished for focusing too much on posture and not enough on the area around them.

"You must keep your eyes closed for the duration of this meditation," said Lady Shandra. "If you open your eyes, your concentration will be ruined. Also, you jeopardize the rest of our focuses as well."

So, they began to focus. Their eyes closed, their breathing became shallow, and their muscles relaxed. For a moment there was nothing out of the ordinary. Then, they could feel a sort of presence pushing toward them. Instinctively, they both almost opened their eyes, but were able to keep them clamped shut.

"This…" said Lady Shandra in a low, rumbling, empty voice. "This is… the essence of our meditation… you feel our energy… as it pours fourth…"

The feelings of something almost tangible floating through the air continued to swirl around them. They could first feel an extremely domineering one, which sent rippling sensations of power over their skin… obviously, it was Lady Shandra. Then the others, slightly weaker, but still very powerful, they felt those flowing through too.

A could, sharp feeling occasionally pushed against them, which was almost always in conflict or complementing a strange feeling of restrained, yet burning passion. A fourth feeling, like that of a flowing stream, pushed softly past them as well. Then there was a low-pressure wave of sorts, and a feeling of immovable strength. And then a wavering, lazy force that weaved over and around them. And finally a very faint force, one they could barely sense, which seemed to disappear the moment they could put a place on it.

"You can sense us…" came Shailagh's voice. "… and the hope is that one day you can do it, too…"

"How…?" asked Emily.

"You have to learn to push out to the surroundings around you," explained Judith, her voice even higher and more removed than usual. "It takes much practice, but its how the best Seers are able to do what we do…"

"When you meditate… feel your way through the air," said Lady Shandra. "Absorb the energies around you, replacing it with your own. Push through the physical bounds of your own body, of the walls around you. Let your essence flow free."

Matt and Emily had no idea how to even go about doing that, but they began to vainly try to push their boundaries, to try and feel through the energies around them. But with seven other, stronger waves of being pushing against them, they had virtually no chance. After about half an hour of it, they could feel the powers beginning to wane. Finally, they were gone completely.

"You are permitted to open your eyes," said Lady Sahandra, finally.

Matt and Emily open their eyes and slowly stood, their muscles quivering. The Top Five seemed pretty refreshed as they stood up as well as Lyle, who was grinning.

"I haven't gotten to do that with others in a long time!" he exclaimed. "Thank you for the opportunity!"

"Could you tell whose essences were flowing?" asked Shailagh, smiling.

"For the most part, yes," said Matt. "Thank you for showing us that… but…"

"You will learn. In time. It just takes practice," said Nico.

"Yes," added Siyon. "You are both talented enough to handle this, at least. And it should help you with manipulation of the magical energy around you to create your own magic."

"This exercise is common among many of the experimentalists out there," said Lyle. "It's a great idea for the two of you to learn the techniques as well."

They weren't able to stay long as they had to report to AP Elemental Magic. However, as their professor set them to practice their skills, Matt and Emily found their exponentiation abilities had strengthened considerably, and several cones of fire erupted around Emily as Matt sent a half dozen orbs of water sailing majestically around his head.

"You're doing well today, especially," beamed Dr. Iseman, hunched over his staff; clearly the arthritis was flaring up today. "Whatever you're doing: keep doing it."

Were it not for the impending exams, they probably would have spent their entire weekend trying to practice their abilities to reach out and meditate, but they were only able to do it during their brief study breaks over the weekend. Though they often did communal study with their other friends, they couldn't very well just space out and try and grope at them with their… essences or wavelengths or whatever it was that they'd been assaulted with from the Seers.

By the first morning of exams, neither Matt nor Emily had been able to feel their way out beyond their bodies, but that was also driven from their minds as they entered the panicked, last-minute cramming timeframe that was the longtime-mainstay of their studying practice. They were both incredibly fortunate in that they didn't have any exams on Monday during the day, until they both reported to the Astronomy classroom with the others late that night. The exam really caught them off guard because there was a ton of math involved that they'd never learned at Hogwarts, and, by the end of it, either was feeling particularly good about the remainder of the week.

"I wouldn't stress it," said Ramirez, bracingly. "It's not like either of you desperately need strong Astronomy scores, yeah?"

Matt, again, spent all of Tuesday in frantic study mode, while Emily had her first two exams. At 11, she sat her AP Potions exam, which required every ounce of her concentration and knowledge on proper potion ingredients and techniques. It was a brutal written section; literally cumulative from every single year of schooling wizarding students endured. She was happy to get this one out of the way first, while everything as fresh and she wasn't fatigued.

They moved into a practical for the last half hour of the exam. They were expected to complete a Draught of the Living Dead, as well as mix-up a quick, though complex, Wit-Sharpening Potion. Her hands moved deftly over the bottles as she poured and sifted, pinched and stirred. When Dr. Baldwin finally told them time was up, she proudly strode forward with her grading sample, heading out the door with her friends.

"How'd you think you did?" she asked the others.

"I'm sure I did good," said Ramirez. "But, man, that was absolutely brutal."

"Yeah, I'm not really confident in myself on this one…" muttered Lillian. "I already realize I mixed up a couple of steps on the practical and that's going to affect my bottom line…"

"But given our time constraints and all we had to do with it, I would say I did about as well as can be expected," said Katrina. "And I feel it's only going to get worse…"

"Well if you do half as good as you just were doing in there, you're gonna be our val-a-dic-torian," James said, grinning and throwing his arm around Emily. "Your hands were just blurs as they flew over!"

"Shouldn't you have been… you know… taking your exam?" asked Emily.

"Hah! Nothing more than a front; Vicki and I, our test scores don't mean jack," said James. "Speaking of which, you got like Charming or some shit next yeah? I'm out."

"Yes, see you later," said Emily, nodding and crossing the grounds with Katrina, Nayoko, Lillian, and Jack. Just outside the room, Melody and Vicki sat, comparing notes in a last-ditch effort to memorize everything.

"I studied so much shit wrong!" Melody raged when they arrived. "Half the stuff we did in Charms is covered by other classes! I'm so pissed!"  
"Mel, you were a Ravenclaw, remember?" Jack teased. "You're gonna be fine!"

Nobody took longer than an hour to finish the exam. Nayoko and Lillian were both done in twenty minutes, Emily at twenty-two, though she spent an extra five checking her answers. Like Potions, the exam had been completely inclusive, but it was nearly entirely multiple choice. And much of it was pretty standard stuff; Emily had taken similar exams under Flitwick on regular weeks. Just as she was leaving, she saw Melody, beaming with glee, half-skipping up the aisle to turn her exam in. Though she did notice that, in the back row, Jack looked like he was dying inside.

Being in an actual classroom was a jarring change for the AP Elemental class. They'd spent every single class outside the entire semester, as Dr. Isewyn found the it limiting to be inside the classroom. He set them to work on a written exam, which was fairly easy in and of itself, and then headed out to the fire side of the building to examine their practical skills out of the eyes of other students. To deter cheating, Professor Heckendora proctored the exam.

As always, Emily was among the first handful of students done with her written portion, so she waited in the antechamber for her turn with their professor, right behind Katrina and Vicki, and just in front of Lillian and Nayoko. Nobody else showed up for a while, and the backlog of students quickly began to thin out.

She headed outside just as she saw Matt wander into the antechamber, his face screwed up in concentration as he counted something on his fingers. She grinned to herself, knowing exactly which question he was stuck on: Question 36: Name the Number of different pronunciations of the simple Earth Bending Spells that produce different results. She promptly followed this up with the thought of how sick it was that she could tell exactly what was going through his head just based on that alone.

Emily glanced around the barren area in front of her, empty except for Dr. Iseman, who was examining her benignly over the carved front of his staff. He was sitting on a lone stone bench, a stack of parchment next to him as a charmed quill floated to take notes for him.

"Miss Davis, always a pleasure," he said. "We'll make this fairly quick. I'll just have you run through a little of each control of the main elements, secondary elements, and a few exercises in exponentiation. Are you prepared?"

Emily nodded. He started her off with some exercises with Air, her favorite element, which progressed into a display of control of water, followed by an abrupt change into a dancing fire, and, finally, the splitting and combining of rocks. That completed, he had her gather an array of lightning and release it in a spectacular arch around the edges of the area they were sitting in, followed by a huge display of encroached ice that split apart at the wave of her wand, and, finally, a dual display of churning light and dark energies.

"Lastly," he said, raising his staff a few inches off the ground. "An exercise of exponentiation. Utilize whichever element you wish to carry these things to a proper area."

As he slammed his staff back to the ground, the ground around Emily trembled slightly and a bizarre array of junk, rocks, fire, and stones appeared around her. She focused for a second, held her wand at the ready, and spun it above her head. A whirlwind kicked up around her, the dust stinging her eyes. She took a few moments, concentrated, relaxed her body, and swung her arms out around her. The whirlwinds turned into seven, which each encased one of the objects she needed. She carefully begun to rotate all of the cyclones, keeping them very carefully under her control, as she moved each item to the marked spot on the field. When the last one was deposited, she flung her wand and arm up into the sky, and the vortices all rose high into the sky, combining into one, which she negated at once, causing a rush of air to blow through the area, making the tree branches blow out.

Dr. Iseman actually stood up and clapped for her, and Emily beamed.

"Brilliant, absolutely brilliant. I see you took my advice from last class. Have you been meditating before class?" he asked.

Emily nodded. "Yes. I saw what it did for me last time, so I did a few minutes just before this exam started, and while I was waiting in the antechamber before my practical just now."

"Well, it definitely shows," he said, making a mark on the parchment with his wand. "You are free to go, and have a wonderful day."

When Matt walked out to the field, the sun had begun to set. Matt ended up being one of the last ones, having let some classmates with exams later in the evening go ahead of him. Jack and Ramirez were the only other guys left when he walked outside, shielding his eyes from the sun.

Dr. Iseman had him do much of the same exercises Emily had done, though Matt started with Water before moving into Air, Fire, and finally Earth. His best performance came from the second part, when he arced four lines of darkness energy into a dome above his head, blasting it apart and into nothingness with an extremely powerful _Lumos Solarum_ spell. He then collected his items in five enormous orbs of water, though they left a few small puddles as he shakily tried to get them to combine into one big bubble at the end.

There were less exam periods scheduled for Wednesday, in an effort to give a small reprieve during the testing week, but it meant very little for those who had an exam during every period. Matt started at 8:00 AM sharp, sitting in his remedial Ancient Runes class, while James cursed the entire ordeal under his breath. A majority of the test was identification and translation, but it was also quite difficult to concentrate at such an early hour. It ended up taking nearly the entire testing period, which left little time to grab a quick bite to eat before they reported for the Magical Theory Testing Hour, as Emily had named it.

To be fair, it only applied to the AP and Remedial students. So Matt and Emily, respectively, sat in their classrooms, just one door apart, scribbling furiously on their parchment. Matt could see that James was far more enthusiastic about the test, his quill moving easily as fast as Emily's hands had undoubtedly gone during her Potions test. Despite knowing very little on some of the earlier, American-central wizarding politics, he caught a break because the exam was definitely geared towards International relations and knowledge, which meant much of what Binns had lectured about was fair studying game for the test.

Unfortunately, the exact opposite was true for the Remedial students. Goldstein seemed to feel that a complete focus on almost-universally American politics would better suit the dunces of the room. This meant Emily was at an enormous disadvantage, even amongst the dumbest and ditsiest wizards and witches of the year. The only saving grace was that the exam was either multiple choice or fill-ins with a word bank, so she figured she at least had a one-in-five shot at every answer.

There was only time for a brief lunch for the seniors in AP Abjuration. The only class all their seaside friends had in common, they formed a last-minute study cluster at their table, which continued into the halls and to the classroom building housing the Abjuration classrooms. There had been a lot of talk, of a sort of "Top Five" at Seaside in terms of exam difficulty, based on the teachers. Dr. T ranked number two, only behind the elder Laurenzi.

Because of the large class size, Dr. T was forced to have her fellow Abjuration professor, Professor Sheldon Rupret, assist her in the practical examinations, which took place in adjacent classrooms. Also, she brought in Octavian Moffat of the Dark Arts Department to proctor the exams while that went on. She gave everyone the option of doing the practical first, if they preferred, but only a few students took her up on that offer.

As expected, Dr. T made sure her exam left no stone unturned, no topic unquestioned. The exam was split into different sections covering personal defensive magic, small areas, large areas, entire buildings, and, finally, the advanced stuff they'd just begun to learn in the few previous weeks. Once again, Emily and Matt thanked their stars for the D.A. happening their first year at Hogwarts, as it gave them a lot of answers to some of the more basic questions they otherwise may never have known.

They finished their exams at the exact same time as James, Vicki, and Katrina, and they entered opposite doors that lead to the hallway before the entrance to the classroom they would be tested in. Matt, Emily, and Katrina all got Dr T. while James and Vicki went to Professor Rupert.

"It's good to see you, Mr. Warren," said Dr. T as Matt entered, directly after Katrina. "As you can see, you've got an array of parchment over on that table. Written on each is a set of directions you have to follow. You may begin."

Matt picked up his three pieces of parchment. He had to create a general anti-magic field of six feet in diameter, enchant a structure to repel bombardment spells, and cast a large-area Muggle-repelling charm. Dr. T waited for him to complete each section, before she followed him around and tested out his work, by firing several minor jinxes and spells at the anti-magic field (as well as using a tape measure to get the exact measurements), using some sort of testing spell to see just how strong the warding effects were, and then firing a Bombarda Spell at the wall Matt had enchanted, where it ricocheted back and exploded fantastically in front of them.

"And now Emily is going to think I blew up the school. Fantastic," Matt said, after his ears stopped ringing.

"Oh, no, don't worry about that. I have several noise-cancelling spells on the far walls and doors… you know, to prevent eavesdropping and unfair advantages," replied Dr. T. "But speaking of which, send her in next."

Emily's exam was much of the same. She had to do a redirection field of five feet in diameter, enchant a structure to repel bombardment spells, and cast a wide-area anti-animal spell, designed specifically for certain beasts found in the Pacific Northwest. Dr. T tested everything and Emily was also similarly surprised when the Bombarda spell ricocheted back. But with nothing further than a big smile on her face, Dr. T excused Emily from the examination room.

There was a reprieve for the remainder of the afternoon and early evening that allowed the test-weary seniors to relax and fully enjoy a meal as they talked about their performances thus far, as well as the exams that were forthcoming. Lady Shandra arrived early, disgruntled that she had been requested to have her exam moved up to 8 instead of the regular 11 o'clock, but those in her class were thankful that they didn't have to stay up until 1 in the morning when some had to be right back at it at 8 the next day.

Matt, Ramirez, Lillian, and Melody sat that difficult examination on their own. Lady Shandra, as per usual, gave her usual disclaimer of disdain for examinations in general before setting them to work on a 10-essay-question exam that covered different sections and types of Divination. She also expected their practical to come in the form of progress reports from their overall Divination project, which she collected right at the beginning of the class. They emerged two hours later with cramped hands and weary minds.

"Tea Leaves? We rarely even touched on that…" Ramirez mumbled to himself.

"Ooh we had the advantage on you, then," said Melody, grinning. "That's the first thing we learned in Hogwarts."

"So, do you think that counted in the "Top Five" of difficult exams here in Seaside or what?" asked Matt.

"Tough to say. With so few people taking Divination, I'm not sure it counts in the grand scheme," said Ramirez.

"I know, for me, personally… it definitely was," muttered Lillian, who was already flipping through her notes. "And I'm sure I missed something incredibly important about the section of Dream Interpretation that has to do with environmental factors…"

There was no consoling the poor girl as she stumbled through the halls, frantically pawing her pages upon pages of notes, vainly searching for the details she had neglected to include on her exam paper. When they split off for their dorms, she was actually sweating from the stress of it, and Melody shot the boys a very alarmed look as she helped guide the poor girl to her dorm room.

Matt and Vicki were right back at it the next morning for their Potions exams. The exam was going to be almost entirely written, with only a small practical section at the end. Matt was really excited that he could fly through the section on Bases of Potions, answering nearly every question fully, but then he hit a brick wall upon moving into the confusing section of antidotes and poisons. And from there it was very hit or miss. The practical, too, was nothing he felt very strongly about, and Heckendora's wrinkled nose and eye roll at him handing his exam sample in didn't help matters much.

"So… what do you think you got?" asked Vicki, who had been waiting outside nearly twenty minutes for him to finish.

"I don't know, maybe like… a B? An A if I'm lucky, but I don't think I passed," Matt said, shrugging. "So much for moving up to Academic."

"I hate her class, so I kinda made some intentional errors in my mix," said Vicki, smirking. "She's not going to enjoy grading it when it decides it wants to overflow onto her desk and eat her quill."

Dr. Ching came in at Number 3 on the Top Five Horrid Examinations, and the AP students could easily see why by the end of it. There was no physically possible way to complete the written section in the time allotted. Even Nayoko and Katrina, far and away the most talented in the class, couldn't answer every question and essay. The practical, likewise, was done on a row of conjured dummies with various injuries. He stalked between the students, writing notes on the clipboards as they moved through repairing broken bones, proper utilization of cleansing salves and elixirs, and diagnostic exams to pinpoint which poisons had entered the body.

"If I'm going to fail anything, that'll be the one," said Toshio, leading the small pack out of the classroom. "I've never sat through an exam like that in my life."

"The practical wasn't hard, really," said Nayoko. "But… I will concede that the written was a challenge."

"I'm certain I failed," said a very morose Lillian. "And… to make things worse… we've got Transmutation next…"

Despite the short amount of time they had, Matt didn't bother trying to study. Instead, he went back to his dorm and meditated for about 30 minutes. He felt his mind wandering slowly into the Transmutative examples and Theorems when he realized he felt like he was floating. The feeling surprised him and brought him crashing back to reality, though his body felt like it had also crashed in on itself.

"I think I did it!" he exclaimed, coming up behind Emily while she ate a quick lunch, immediately causing her to choke on her fries.

"That's great!" she gagged. "Now what the hell did you do?"

"That thing… the Seers did… you know… the mediation? I think I got it!" Matt said, his excitement causing him to shake with joy.

"Tell me about it later. We're going to be late for Transmutation," said Emily, with a heavy sigh.

Few things seemed to give Dr. Agatha Laurenzi more pleasure than torturing her students, so it was no surprise that she easily was the Number 1 spot on the Top Five Horrid, Difficult, and Bloody Impossible Examinations at Seaside. Unlike the other teachers, she expected them to do their practical first, and enlisted both Jerome Martine and her daughter, Kimberly Laurenzi, to help her proctor them as they went. She had explained that it was to weed out those who crammed their notes just before the test, proving for real whether one fully grasped the magic or not.

Emily was lucky enough to get Jerome as her examiner, so she felt much more at ease. He smiled and spoke very calmly and happily as she worked her way through several minor body Transmutations, some of which were intermixed with non-body, regular-object ones.

"Okay, then…" Jerome said, marking a few things down on a piece of parchment. "Last but not least: turn your fingernails into cobalt."

Emily felt her stomach drop out as she flashed back to the year previous, and her fingernails' magical journey into the desk between her and Professor McGonagall. She hesitated, carefully raised her wand, and uttered the charm quietly, closing her eyes and aiming her hand low to avoid blinding Jerome if things went wrong.

When she didn't feel anything rip from her hands and go flying, she opened her eyes. Her left hand's nails glittered up at her, silvery and, mercifully, intact. She almost let out a cheer of triumph, but the thought of what would happen if Dr. Laurenzi was interrupted during an exam scared even Emily to her core. Jerome gave her a curious look; clearly her relief shown on her face.

"I have never been able to do that," said Emily. "Next time I see McGonagall, the first thing I'm going to do is tell her I _finally_ got my nails to change without shooting off."

"I… see. Well… good for you!" Jerome said, smiling. "Good luck on the written!"

It was a long wait before Matt's name was finally called. They had been kept separated from those who had already done the exam, and only Nayoko and another girl Matt didn't know were left when Matt entered the testing chamber. Dr. Laurenzi surveyed him over her hands, her fingers interlocked as she sat rigid in her seat.

"G-good afternoon, professor," Matt said, bowing slightly.

"Let's begin," she said, all-business. "Let's begin with several basic Transmutations."

She had him perform a small array of basic-level Transmutations, seemingly to loosen him up and prepare him for the harder stuff. He changed a mouse into a wine glass, several pieces of shredded paper into a flock of tiny canaries, and performed a switching spell on three different glasses of juice at once. Dr. Laurenzi carefully examined each goblet for the purity of the liquid.

"Good. Now, let's begin with your body modifications," she said, briskly switching sheets. "Again, we'll start with the easy stuff. Please turn your fingers into carrots."

After changing them back, she had switch his hair with the leaves of a leafy plant in the corner of the room, temporarily change his left foot into a heavy rock, and change his entire head into a pumpkin. That all completed, she tapped her chin thoughtfully, and a slow smile spread across her face.

"For your last exercise, I want you to switch your legs and arms with the legs and arms of this table," she said.

"Absolutely…" Matt said. "Um… but… how will I be able to switch back once I do that?"

"Mr. Warren, do you honestly believe I would let you remain as half a table when you have a written exam to take?" she asked.

Matt thought for a moment. If he had been speaking to Dr. Tavoularius, part of him wouldn't have doubted it. But Laurenzi was far too serious for that. Still, as he mulled the incantation over in his head, he hesitated. Finally, with a sigh, he waved his wand over his head and muttered the spell.

The desk in front of him crashed down a few inches, and his wand fell out of his hand and rolled away. But, sticking out of the holes in his robes, he could see that his arms and legs had grown a lot longer, replaced with the polished dark wood of the desk, while his pale arms and legs were the new supports for the desk in front of him.

"You did very well, Mr. Warren," said Laurenzi, after she took a moment to examine and poke the table legs. She waved her wand and, with a loud crack, Matt's original appendages returned to his body. Except for a sore left wrist, everything seemed to be in working order, so he bade his teacher farewell and left through the far door, where the rest of the class was waiting.

"How'd ya do?" asked Vicki as Matt approached their group.

"Pretty good… my wrist is a little sore, though," said Matt, frowning. "I had to transplant all my limbs into a desk."

"Ouch," said Emily. "I bet it looked awful, too, since your arms and legs are shorter than mine."

"That's okay, I heard a lot of loud screaming from next door when I was doing my exam with Ms. Laurenzi," said Katrina. "By the sounds of it, someone set their hand on fire and wasn't letting Dr. Laurenzi put the flames out…"

Once everyone was finished, they began the written portion. It was nearly twenty pages long and, like Dr. Ching's exam, there was no hope of answering every single question completely. Fortunately, there were some sections that only required parts of questions to be answered (something a distressed and disgruntled sigh from Melody about twenty minutes in told them not everyone realized). All through the test, Laurenzi patrolled the aisles, looking for any signs of cheating. Thankfully, nobody in the AP section was stupid enough to try.

Once it was finally over, and Laurenzi vanished everyone's quills right out of their hands, there was an eerie, calm silence over the entire room. They filed out, silently, many massaging their wrists due to writer's cramp, or simply looking dead to the world.

"… so…" said a very hoarse Jack as they made their way aimlessly through the halls. "Who else can't remember how to properly… exist…?"

"Me," said Emily and Melody at the same time.

"I've never been this worn out after a written exam," said Nayoko. "I can't believe she beat even Professor Ching with… difficulty…"

"I really, really need a nap," muttered Lillian, who was rubbing her eyes. "I can't handle anymore today."

"I… think I did good, actually," said Matt. "I knew a lot more than I thought I would… and I'm not quite ready to die yet…"

"You… aren't human," said Vicki.

Despite already sitting through arguably the toughest exams Seaside had to offer, they still weren't done yet. The Friday 11 PM classes had their exams scheduled for the 5 PM Thursday exam slot in order to keep exam week from spilling over into the weekend. For the seniors, the only class offered during that time slot was Summoning, so after dinner Matt, Emily, Ramirez, Toshio, Lillian, Melody, Jack, James, and Vicki all forced themselves to go back to Lyle's classroom for a bizarre exam that they couldn't quite comprehend everything on, nor find a clear pattern or direction for the answers.

"Well, if you think about it," Lyle said, after they turned in their papers. "It's kind of the way Summoning itself is! You gotta sorta wing it, find patterns and connections on our own, so… that's what I reflected in the test. I'm sure you all did fine! … but you all kinda look like zombies right now so… perhaps you should call it a night, yeah?"

They didn't need telling twice, and almost everyone was snoring by 10 PM… which was good because they were due at Lt. Briggs' classroom by 0800 sharp, or they received an automatic zero for the exam. There was one unfortunate soul who that happened to, a friend of Mike and Teruhiko that neither Matt nor Emily knew the name of.

"Now that we've got one failure out of the picture, the rest of you: your examination will be twofold. The written portion will be conducted first, and then you will practice on each other," barked Lt. Briggs. "There will be a series of exercises, and you will rotate partners. Your grades will be 75% your exam score, and then bonus points for your rank among your other classmates."

"Excuse me, Sir," Melody said, raising her hand. "But doesn't that mean if you get paired with tough challengers, you could end up with a much lower score?"

"If you have a problem with it, you can join Mr. Phelps outside the examination chamber. Do I make myself clear?" snarled Briggs.

"Crystal," Melody replied, her face cloudy with rage.

The written took very little time; it was mostly details on dueling laws and practices, proper stances, wand controls and positions, do's and don'ts, and other relatively basic knowledge that Lt. Briggs constantly reminded them of during training.

"Alright!" called Lt. Briggs, his wand aloft. "I will split you up as I see fit; note the lists on the ceiling to find your partner. We'll start slow and build up."

Matt and Emily were immediately paired up for the first exercise. Both had spent their free time after the exam meditating, but with Briggs stomping around looking for people sleeping during his class time (which was as much a taboo as talking back to him), neither were able to fully relax. They'd also noticed that he'd been much shorter with the two of them since the incident in Dr. T's office.

"You will begin with basic Disarming jinxes, on my mark!" he called, after everyone was lined up. "Best two-out-of-three. On my mark…"

At the whistle, shouts of "_Expelliarmus!_" rang out around the entire Dueling hall. This was followed by the sound of about twenty-odd wands hitting the floor. Unfortunately, Matt had yawned just before the mark, and he'd missed his chance. Emily, focused and ready, James' suggestions ringing in her head, brought her wand down so quickly and ferociously that the spell she shot out was powerful enough to blast Matt off his feet.

"Warren, what are you doing?" Briggs snarled, stomping forward. "Don't tell me you're so weak you got blown off by a Disarming Charm!"

"It would appear that that is exactly what happened," Matt muttered, standing up and rubbing his elbow. Down the line, Mike and Teruhiko snickered.

"SILENCE!" he roared. "Line back up and go again. Once more, on my mark...!"

_Sorry!_ Emily mouthed to Matt. _Free shot?_

_No._ Matt shook his head. _If I can't do it on my own, I don't deserve it._

The second round went smoother; Matt was more prepared so he only lost his wand this time (although Mike Torrentino did a spectacular flail-fall backward in an imitation of Matt; Briggs didn't say anything to him). The third time, they both managed to Disarm each other. Briggs set them up with new partners, so they had a couple of seconds to talk as they moved around.

"That was amazing, Em," James said, with a grin as he gave her a brief, one-armed hug. "You were listening to me when I talked!"

"Well, yeah… what did you think I'd be doing?" asked Emily as she went to partner with Melody.

"Being distracted by my amazing personality and gorgeous face," James said, grinning as he and Vicki partnered up.

"Y... yeah, okay," said Emily, rolling her eyes as Melody giggled.

"How's your arm?" asked Ramirez, facing Matt.

"Good. I saw you Disarmed Jack all three times," Matt said. "Impressive stuff; Jack was one of our best duelers in Ravenclaw."

"It's too damn early for this," grumbled Jack, who faced Teruhiko for the second round.

For the second exercise, there were again going to be three rounds of dueling, best of the three. They were only to use Basic-Class spells in a linear fashion, as if it was a dueling stage. They were also strongly suggested to limit themselves to low-medium-level spells. They were to continue until one was no longer able to duel. He raised his wand and a bang set it off.

Flashes and jets and rays of light flashed all around as the classroom erupted into a controlled chaos of jinxes and hexes flying all around. Several people went down almost instantly, but it took nearly a full minute and a half for the last few groups to finish, their hisses and shouts flying around the hall. Emily and Melody were pretty evenly matched, but Emily managed to lock Melody's legs and knock her flying with a Knockback Jinx. Matt was barely defeated by Ramirez when his legs gave out from under him as Ramirez found a hole in his shield. James and Vicki both looked incredibly bored as they slung spells between each other, until they realized they were the only ones left and everyone was watching to see which of them would go down first. James gave in and let Vicki stun him.

The second round was much of the same; Emily beat Melody fairly quickly but the latter had gotten distracted by a really loud spell from the guy standing next to her. Ramirez, being Dr. T's son, was quite adept at his defensive spells, so finding a hole on him proved very difficult for Matt. His strategy simply became a full-on barrage of weak spells, hoping that one or two of them could break through. After about 45 seconds of this, just as he was running out of breath, Ramirez misjudged a spinning spell, and it knocked him to the ground, where Matt promptly disarmed him. Again, Vicki and James were the last two to finish, with Vicki having her legs locked, falling very unconvincingly onto her side and dropping her wand.

In the final round of the second section, Melody tried Matt's technique on a barrage, but Emily's cleared mind was able to easily block most of them, or at least deflect them up to the ceiling. She outlasted Melody, who, gasping for breath, was unable to conjure up a barrier to stop the well-placed stunner. Next to her, Matt also went down after a vicious fight between him and Ramirez that left both sweating. And after Vicki and James were done, Briggs blew a whistle and called them forward.

"Thus far you've been fighting with only one partner. But one of the things we've started touching on is group combat and tactics. I will split you up into groups of four, and you will duel a second group," explained Briggs.

Matt ended up grouped with Melody and two other girls, while Emily, Ramirez, Jack, and some thick-looking guy were put in the next group. Then nearly everyone did a double-take when Briggs announced Vicki, James, Teruhiko, and Mike in one group. No prizes for guessing who the favorite students of Lt. Briggs were.

With ten groups, they sat through five rounds. Matt's group was in the second round. They went against an evenly split guys/girls team made up of some above-average duelists. They didn't have enough time to properly discuss tactics, but Melody was plenty happy to lead the charge, wand blazing as she shot Stunners, Disarming jinxes, and a wide array of other spells at the other group. Matt was more happy to hang back, trying to lay down wider swaths of protective barriers for the girls, while firing spells off when he thought the enemies weren't looking. The strategy worked pretty well for a while, and in the end Matt and Melody were the last two to make it, largely thanks to her renewed assault with silent spells, making it much harder to predict.

In the fourth round, Emily's group very nearly lost only a couple of seconds in when their thick-looking teammate completely dropped the ball on his side and was knocked clean out right at the whistle. The other three scrambled and ducked as they fought off four of the stronger duelists Their combined efforts worked, and they took out three of the others before Ramirez was Stunned. Then, Teruhiko and Emily both directed curses at the final boy, who was unable to defend against them and fell to the ground in a crumpled heap.

Afterwards, Briggs led the class to the grounds where a football field-sized arena awaited them. It looked like it could have been another gray-stoned campus building, like a small castle, but it had been badly bombarded with spells; a couple rickety towers stood amidst the rubble and debris. Lt. Briggs explained that he was going to split them, girls and guys, and send them inside the arena. They were to try and move around the arena, dueling each other until only one remains.

"But… sir…" Matt said, having put his hand up in the middle of the explanation. "We weren't starting this until January… why are we getting tested on it now?"

"You are, of course, welcome to sit out this section of the test," Briggs replied, an evil grin on his face. "If you wish to receive a failing grade. This is a warm-up of sorts for the upcoming lessons on dueling in various stages of indoor/outdoor situations. I want to see what you already know, and what we need to focus on."

The girls lined up at various openings around the perimeter. Emily glanced to her left and looked at Vicki, who smiled before quickly turning her head to the entrance, regaining her serious composure. On her right, Melody carefully tied her hair back behind her; it occurred to Emily that the girl rarely ever had her hair done up at all.

"Good luck!" Emily said.

"I won't need it," Melody replied, grinning. "The girls and I in Ravenclaw are used to dueling indoors. We did it nearly daily back in Hogwarts."

Emily grinned as the whistle cut across the arena. She sprinted inwards and as soon as she did, the wall closed up behind her. She only took several steps down a narrow alley into a wider area closer to the center when Briggs' voice rang out across the arena.

"I neglected to mention, however: the Top 6 in each division, boys and girls, will continue on to the final round. So if you think your score needs a boost with some extra points, I'd suggest you fight hard and strong," he said.

The walls were about eight feet tall, and Emily knew she could use a pretty simple enchantment to fly higher than them and start fighting from above. But when she saw two girls in the distance try that and immediately get knocked out of the sky (and therefore probably out of the contest), she decided the cover of the walls around her would be better. So she headed forward.

"_STUPEFY!_" came a call right behind her.

She rolled to the side and turned back to immediately disarm a girl who had snuck up behind her. The girl swore as her wand flew from her hands, and Emily followed it up with a stunner of her own. The girl collapsed and she and her wand were removed from the arena with a flash. She ran ahead, knowing that the sounds would attract others.

She didn't see anyone for another few minutes, so she took the risk to run up one of the towers. She spied a sniper of sorts waiting in the shadows of one of the cracks. But she was so focused on looking for targets out and below her that she neglected to notice Emily's arrival. The girl gasped just as Emily's next Stunner caught her in the chest.

"Only ten remain," boomed Lt. Briggs' voice.

Emily turned back to the dilapidated stairwell behind her and a thought crossed her mind. She grinned as she threw a small Caterwauling Charm on the walls. Then she took up a sniping position further up in the tower. Below her, she could see that, except for one wide avenue running down the center of the field, the place was set up like a maze, with the eight-foot high walls running in all different directions. She could vaguely see flashes of light coming from one narrow passage, and knew two people were having at it. That meant, as long as one of them fell, she only had to get rid of one more to be guaranteed a spot in the finals. So she sat and waited. Nothing happened for almost two minutes… and then a horrible wailing noise filled the tower, causing her to leap further behind her wall, while firing off two quick body-binding and leg-locking curses around the corner.

"The match is over!" Briggs' voice roared. "Prepare to be extracted."

Emily felt herself pulled out of the arena, in the same fashion as through Apparition. She crashed down hard on the ground, next to Vicki, the Leg-locked Melody, and five other girls.

"Technically there were only five remaining when I ended the match, but, Miss Moon, you have caught a lucky reprieve as you were the second one to be hexed out of the arena," said Briggs. "Therefore you will join Davis, Lanzara, Tompkins, Valencia, and Gordon in the final match."

"That was a really smart tactic, Emily," said Melody, after she released her legs. "It didn't even occur to me to set up defensive enchantments!"

"Briggs was impressed too, though he'll never admit it," said Ramirez, grinning as he walked past to take his starting position. "You might just get one of those coveted E's from him."

"We'll see. He still probably hates me," said Emily, shrugging.

Matt closed his eyes and kept his breath level and steady for the few minutes it took to set the boys up for their fight. He could hear Jack muttering to himself on his left, while Mike Torrentino stood on his right, bragging to one of his other friends about how he was going to get at least ten kills before it was over. He ran everyone's tactics through his mind as he waited, thinking about what they'd seen through the enchanted walls on the outside of the maze. Emily, Vicki, and the Valencia chick had been laying down protective enchantments, which Matt had thought of but knew everyone would be doing now. He grumbled about the luck as the whistle cut across, catching him by surprise as he stumbled into the maze.

The walls were ten feet tall this time, much to his chagrin. He, too, thought about levitating to the top and firing from there, when someone came jumping across the top of the walls, firing a spell at him. Matt gasped and rolled out of the way as part of the wall behind him exploded, showering him with small rocks. Around him, the fighting seemed to be more violent, and explosions rocked the arena.

He made his way forward cautiously. The adrenaline in his body was pulsating violently. He wished he could see just a few feet ahead of him, around a corner or, if he met someone, see what they were going to do. He sighed and closed his eyes again, thinking that he wanted nothing more than the power of Shailagh's premonitions. When he opened his eyes, he felt like he was seeing double, but it wasn't quite right… and his body felt lighter, too.

"What the…?" he muttered, his heart pounding.

The wall in front of him suddenly exploded, but silently. He leapt back and conjured up a barrier, just as the doubled wall in front of him exploded too, though the rocks he was showered with this time were blocked by the spell. Matt fell backward, his double vision disappearing. The rocks hung there for a half a second, but Matt blasted them back with a Bombarda spell, and was surprised to hear a curse with the sound of an impact. The rocks had managed to hit someone, a boy who was doubled over. Without even thinking, Matt stunned the guy and took off, sprinting down the narrow passageway, hoping to avoid the central location.

"That… it… the premonition…" muttered Matt. "I think I…"

_"Expelliarmus!_" came a cry behind him.

_"Repellio!_" Matt roared, turning as he did. The jet of light hung there before the second sweep of Matt's arm sent the jet flying backwards. He was shocked when he saw James standing before him, and he broke out in a cold sweat. James merely grinned at him, gave a quick nod, and took off into the brighter light of the central avenue.

"He let me go…" muttered Matt, who began to cautiously follow him.

"There are only ten of you left!" came Briggs' call.

_So that leaves at least James and myself… I'm sure Mike hasn't gotten taken out yet.. so… who is left?_

He peaked out around the edge of the central avenue and was not surprised to see it was deserted. And someone was in the same tower Emily had been in because he fired a spell at Matt, who rolled out of the way at the last second. After that, it was eerily quiet, and Matt focused on the premonition thoughts again. He was able to reclaim the doubled vision, but it was wavy and not nearly as strong this time. Also, it made him feel vaguely ill. But he felt a shadow pass over him, and knew what was about to happen.

"_Reducto!_" he shouted, pointing to the wall space right above him.

Just as he did that, the boy who was skipping over the narrow parts of the wall appeared. His eyes widened in shock as the wall erupted below him, disintegrating and sending him tripping across the narrow gap and into the other wall. He fell down behind it, and Matt was certain the boy was at least unconscious. Dizzy from the doubled-vision, he stumbled back further into the narrow section. After about two minutes, Briggs' voice rang out again.

"The match is over! Prepare to be extracted!"

Matt landed on the ground outside the arena. He was not surprised to see Mike and James among the victors, as well as Jack and two more boy he didn't know.

"For the boys, then, we will have Torrentino, Johnson, Warren, Hacker, Wilson, and Carson," said Briggs. "Take five minutes to recover your stamina; this will be the last part of your exam."

"Emily, I think I did it again," Matt muttered. "Modern magic."

"What?" Emily asked, her eyes bugging. "Is that how you knew when to fire those spells?"  
"Oh… right… you saw…" Matt said, remembering the enchanted screens. "Yeah, I foresaw the wall exploding, and the guy jumping over me…"

"Briggs thought you were cheating," Emily said, smirking. "But I guess in a way… technically… that's true. How'd you do it?"

"I just remember my blood pumping really hard, like... it reminded me of last year, when Snape was escaping," said Matt, who realized his hand was still shaking. "If I had to guess, I'd say the adrenaline has a way of making it easier to do. I meditated beforehand as well."

"If you can stay alive in the arena long enough to find me, let's see what we can do," Emily said. "Just don't let Mike find you."

"Same to you," said Matt. "Where should we meet?"

"Foot of the other tower, not the one I was in," said Emily. "Everyone seems to be going for that one, so let's avoid that…"

They were further spread out as there was only twelve of them this time, alternating boy-girl, so Matt was unable to see where Emily was entering. Luckily, he was only about half the field away from the smaller tower, so he used the Point Me Spell to find his way toward it. From a good few yards away, he could hear one of the girls fighting with James, and knew he must have been taking it easy on her if she hadn't gone down.

Meanwhile, Emily dove through a huge hole in the wall to escape her own pursuer, the boy named Carson, and was met with a stroke of luck when Jack turned the corner and spotted the other boy just as Emily turned the corner. The shockwaves from their fierce duel shook the walls around her as she headed toward the tower; she was unfortunate enough to start really far away from it. She could feel her blood pumping through her body, and her breath caught in her chest when she saw that the quickest and easiest way to the smaller tower was to run across the central avenue. She cursed her luck, wishing she had some sort of agility potion to make her run faster.

Then she got an idea. As her heart pounded, she pointed her wand at her feet and just muttered the word _speed_ over and over. Nothing seemed to be happening. She sighed, frustrated. How had Matt managed to make the premonitions work? Then, she heard a male scream in pain as something exploded behind her; she was out of time. Either Jack or the other boy would soon be after her. Emily took off into the central avenue. Almost immediately, she felt the hairs on the back of her neck stand up; something was aiming for her.

She squeezed her eyes shut and swore. But as she did that, she felt a power sear through her legs. And suddenly she was sprinting so fast, she thought her legs were going to fall out from under her. Just behind her, a bolt of lightning struck from the taller tower across the street. She felt herself slow again, just as she reached the edge of the wall that would put her back in the small wall areas. And then she kept running, when the feeling in her neck came back. From across the wide avenue, whichever guy who was alive had fired something at her, and she felt it coming this way. Her legs suddenly kicked into overdrive again, and she thought she was going to hit the wall in front of her until she jumped up and kicked off it, to the right. The Reductor spell blasted the wall apart just moments after she slipped around the corner. The sound of a lightning strike, however, signaled the end of whichever guy was pursuing her.

"Glad you could make it," Matt said, ducked down by the tower as Emily came to him. He was shocked by how pale she looked.

"My… legs…" Emily muttered. "When… I was running across the avenue… I ran so fast I thought I was going to die…"

"And did you use a specific spell?" asked Matt.

"No… I just willed them to do speed beforehand, but I didn't feel anything…" she answered. "Are we safe here?"

"I haven't seen anyone since I first entered," Matt said. "You?"

"Got chased by two guys, one of whom may have been Jack," said Emily. "And the person from the tower over there."

"Yeah… I was looking at that, and I think I know how we can get her down," said Matt. "See that spot, about ¾ of the way up? It looks weak on the one side. If we hit it with a strong enough spell, it should collapse."

"Good idea. That will at least take out the person inside it," said Emily. "How do you know it's a girl?"

"I caught a glimpse of her earlier," said Matt. "So… shall we try some MM on this one?"

"Yeah," said Emily, not wanting to tip off the people watching the screen. "Ready when you are…"

But try as they might, neither one could properly do the thing they wanted. Matt tried to point at the weak spot, saying _Ancient Nova!_ Over and over, but with no success. Emily tried to get it to work with a bit of compressed air, but that didn't work either. They even tried to keep the adrenaline up, but it was no use.

"Fuck it. _Bombarda _three?" asked Emily.

"Sure… one… two…" Matt counted.

_"BOMBARDA MAXIMA!_" they both roared.

The twin jets of blue light erupted out of their wands, soaring across the entire arena. They collided just above and below the weak spot on the tower, blasting a hole into it. They laughed maniacally as the entire structure swayed and then collapsed inward, sending up a huge cloud of dust and debris as it did so.

"That. Was. Awesome!" Matt cackled.

"Indeed. Let's move on, we gave our position away with those jets of light," said Emily.

"You sure did," came a haughty voice behind them. "Not that I didn't know where you were to begin with."

Matt and Emily turned, but it was too late. The stunner was already flying at them. Emily felt the adrenaline in her legs kick in and she leapt high and out of the way, but Matt couldn't react in time. It caught him right in the head and he fell to the ground, whisked out of the arena.

"Oops. Got your boyfriend," said Mike Torrentino, smirking as he walked out of the tower. "Well, I guess it's time for me to get rid of you next, hm?"

"Dammit," swore Emily. Her mind was racing, and she felt the fury of having Matt knocked out of the arena right next to her pounding in her head. But the area they were in was pretty open… so… why was Mike just strolling around in the open? _He must have help too…_

"So, you just gonna hide behind that debris pile, or are you actually gonna come out and play?" he taunted her. "Better hurry; that dust cloud you kicked up is coming our way."

Sure enough, they were soon covered in the dust. Emily actually was quite pleased by this, and took a moment to mutter, _"Homenum Revelio." _Surrounded by the dust, she was sure that Mike and whoever was helping him wouldn't be able to see her spell. The purples haze flowed out and one, inches from her face, showed the direction Mike was in. Another floated above her head… and she realized that she must be right under part of the tower. She didn't dare send them out further, so she nixed the spell.

"Fine, then, enjoy your time outside watching us win!" he cackled, and she knew the time was up.

"_GOD'S BREATH!"_ she roared.

She felt a rush of air collapsed in around her, which was then fired straight up. A surprised screech told her she'd found her mark, and Emily dove out of the way just as part of the tower, along with the girl from above, came crashing down, renewing the momentarily cleared dust. Emily followed the sound of coughing and shot a stunner directly at it. A snap told her she'd hit her mark and the girl was out of the picture.

"You _bitch!_" snarled Mike, who was coughing. "Enough of this!"

Another, weaker rush of wind cleared out most of the smoke. Emily saw Mike's livid face as he began to fire spells with a cold, angry accuracy. Emily was only able to deflect a couple of them before she had to run. She disappeared into the dust cloud, though it caused her to cough. From behind her, Mike's spells broke through the cloud, and though she did manage to dodge most of them. Finally, as she ran out of breath and her muscles groaned in protest, she turned. She decided that if she was going to face Mike, win or lose, and not run in fear.

"_Stupefy!_" she snarled, shooting back in the direction he was coming from.

"That's more like it!" he roared, breaking through the cloud. They began to sling spells back and forth at each other, their wands nothing more than blurs in the flashing lights of their spells. After about three minutes of that, Emily finally found herself losing her wand, as she was disarmed. It flew high into the sky and clattered down behind her.

"You put up a decent fight," said Mike, grinning. "But your time has…"

"_Stupefy!_" Emily roared, pointing at him with a stick. Mike gasped and dove out of the way, dropping his own wand as he went. Emily took this time to jump back, grab her own wand and, with a rush of elation, stun Mike for real. His final curse was cut short as the jet of red light slammed into his mouth.

"Beautiful work, darlin'," said a very familiar voice behind her as she found herself held in an embrace. "Just what I expected from you."

"Hi James," Emily groaned, turning to see the soot-covered guy grinning at her. "I see you survived, too."

"Yeah," said James, laughing. "It was hard, you did kinda drop a tower on me."

"Oh right. Sorry about that. So… we gonna duel or what?" asked Emily.

"I don't know… maybe… maybe not… maybe I'll just let you take the win and-," James began.

"_Stupefy!_"

James slumped forward, letting go of Emily as he fell and was whisked out of the arena. Emily turned to see Vicki standing there, shaking her head.

"Sorry. But I feel like this test will never end if I don't end it," said Vicki. "Forgive me. _Stupefy!_"

Emily awoke on the ground as the class gathered around her. James was already awake and was being examined by the school nurse. A few feet beyond that, she saw Matt, who was being confronted by Lt. Briggs. Dr. T stood a little further back, a dangerous smile on her face. Emily stood, brushed off the nurse's aid, and wandered over.

"Sir, you never said we had to fight each other and couldn't form alliances," Matt said, patiently, though Emily could see his eyes were full of panic.

"The _point_ of this exercise was to pit all of you in a battle royale, Mr. Warren!" Lt. Briggs snarled. "You and Davis floundered that, therefore nullifying the rules of the engagement!"

"And what about Torrentino, then?" asked Emily. "I know he was working with that chick I blasted out of the tower."

"And another thing, you never did specifically state that we couldn't help others, if we so saw fit," Vicki said, walking over and dusting her robes off.

"Oh, is that true, Konrad?" asked Dr. T, who waltzed forward. "Did you specifically state that they had to fight each other? And no forms of alliances or trickery were allowed?"

_Trickery… ah, so he didn't like my technique with Mike, then_… Emily thought.

"I… did not," conceded Lt. Briggs, though he looked furious. "I guess there is no point in arguing over it any longer. Lanzara was our… victor… as painful as it is to say it like that."

"Yeah, yeah, let's just get this over with," said Vicki. "I have other tests today."

"Dr. T, what are you doing here anyway?" asked Matt.

"Well it's kind of hard to not notice this exam when it happens," said Dr. T, grinning. "And I was going to watch my son, but it seems I arrived after he'd already been eliminated."

"Blame Jack. He didn't see fit to go easy on me," said Ramirez, grinning and punching the boy on the arm.

"Not my fault you couldn't block a simple Binding Hex," said Jack. "Your mother must be so proud that you can't even produce a basic Shield Charm under duress."

"So who finished in what order?" asked Emily.

"Well it went Vicki, you, James, Mike for the top four," said Matt. "I came in sixth because Gordon put up a bigger fight than Vicki was likely expecting… and I don't really think it matters from there."

"True enough," said Emily, who then realized her leg was bleeding. "Oh… I should probably get that looked at."

She returned to the exasperated, but patient nurse, who patched her up and sent her on her way. Everyone was already horridly exhausted, and that was just the first exam of the day; some of the class still had three to go.

The exam immediately following Dueling was Transmigration for Matt and Healing for Emily. Neither exam went particularly well; the fatigue from the earlier exams plus the fact that it wasn't a high-priority studying target for either of them was a bad start. The fact that Ching was so demanding, and that even the AP Transmigration students were used to the easy-going nature and lessons of the Youss sisters, meant that the very difficult exam (complete with obscure calculations and graphs they had rarely studied for the entire year) took them all by surprise and, by lunch time, there was a large feeling of resentment creeping through the class.

Lunch was a blessing, a time to recuperate both energy and mental stamina. Matt and Emily only had one exam left: Magical Zoology at 2:00. After the ordeals of the first two exams, it was wonderful to have a reprieve with the much simpler exam. Almost the entire exam was written, with simply three stations with replicas of different animals that they were required to demonstrate their proficiency of caring for. They had to show the proper way to clean and snip a gryphon's talons, cure a unicorn of horn rot, and properly hydrate a beached kappa. The only section that both Matt and Emily had some trouble on involved the most docile of creatures; they hadn't had the fortune of taking early Care of Magical Creatures classes in Hogwarts, so they had no frame of reference for some of the easier ones.

"And… it's over!" cheered Jack as they walked back towards their dorms after the exam had finished.

"Well, technically there's still one more exam period…" Matt said. "In fact, doesn't Melody have Astrology later?"  
"Oh… right, I forgot about that," said Jack. "Ah well. For me, it's FREEDOM!"

That night, everyone packed up to leave. Matt and Emily, for the third year running, had elected to stay at school, rather than return home, in an effort to keep their family protected. Of their Seaside friends, only Jack and Melody had likewise volunteered to remain permanently at Seaside, except for a few visits to their parents on Christmas Day. They invited Matt and Emily as well, but the latter declined. Dr. T and Ramirez also promised to make constant visits throughout the break, to keep an eye on things.

"Take care of yourselves," said Katrina, as she got ready to depart. "And have a Merry Christmas."

"Yeah, don't do anything I wouldn't," said Teruhiko, winking as he punched them both roughly on the arms.

"Which leaves… don't burn the school down, I suspect," said Toshio, following his brother.

"If you need like… help on homework or something, send me an owl. Happy Holidays," said Nayoko, as she and her brothers also left.

"Are you sure you don't want to come to someone's house? My family would be more than happy to oblige some room," Lillian said.

"We're fine, thanks," said Emily. "Appreciate the offer, though! Go on and relax, you've earned it."

"Yeah. We're gonna have to hit the ground running when we get back from break," Matt said. "I'm a little worried about getting our tests back, too."

"You worry about the strangest things, you know that?" said Ramirez, smirking.

"Comparatively speaking, he's right," said Emily. "On a slightly related note, maybe we should try and see Lyle before he leaves?"

"He's gone already, actually," said Vicki. "I watched him leave last night; he was in a definite rush."

"Rumors have already started spreading around about you and him, you know," James said, conversationally.

"They have? I haven't heard anything…" Matt said, surprised.

"Well, you probably wouldn't. You don't really associate with anyone except those in the core group here," said Xavier.

He was right, Matt and Emily realized. But given the danger… it seemed like the less widely varied their social circle was, the safer they all were. They made a mental note to keep track of things going on around campus, gossip-wise, and to try and be a little more discreet with Lyle. There was no reason to invite unwanted attention to the meetings, which would then surely give rise to awkward questions from their friends that they were unable to answer.

Later that night, once everyone was gone and James and Vicki went to do their final reports, Matt and Emily sat in the latter's room, grooming their birds. Cyclone seemed very content while Matt polished his beak, though Red Wing seemed a little irked that Emily had to clip his talons again.

"This break, we really, really, really need to meditate and practice our magic. No slacking this time," Matt said.

"Agreed," Emily said, nodding. "I think it'll be easier with less distractions and no school work…"

"No school work? Did you forget the massive piles of work Goldstein, Ching, Heckendora, and Laurenzi gave us?" Matt asked, a little panicked.

"You know what I meant," Emily replied, sighing. "Let's… just not think about that right now. I'm a little burnt out from school today."

"I hear that," Matt said. "But still… gotta admit it was fun ruining Briggs' day today, yeah?"

The two snickered as they replayed the weeks' events in their heads, which continued well after Vicki and James joined them. Again there was some joy and laughter, cutting through the tension of the quiet campus as a brief snow flurry swirled overhead.

**Author's Note:**

**This ended up being a lot longer than I'd anticipated it being. Once I started writing the Dueling Exam, I just couldn't stop; so it grew into 21 pages instead of the original planned 10~15. Anyway, as promised, I'm announcing YET ANOTHER new work, but this is one I'm completely excited about.**

**Hunger Games. That's right. A mega-super-awesome crossover of TWELVE fandoms. Well… 11 fandoms and an OC universe that will one day be a fandom. And Hogwarts is one of them. I'm not revealing the others until the story begins… but… that will be my next big project, as I continue with this one. So… yeah. If you don't like/care about Hunger Games, this announcement means NOTHING to you… so carry on. Otherwise… May the odds be ever in your (favorite characters') favor!**


	9. Chapter 9

**Author's Note:**

**The story continues.**

Chapter Nine: Broken Façade

Having the empty school to play around in was actually a welcome change for Matt, Emily, and the others. For the first days of break, they mostly vegged out and relaxed, recuperating from the exhausting end-of-semester trials. The weather outside was constantly rainy and always slightly too warm for snow, so they didn't have much reason to go outside either. After the first week was over, Emily had read through five new books and Matt had completely torn apart and reorganized his dorm room three times, plus done half his Transmutation homework assignments.

James and Vicki both had to return to the A.W.A. for recurrent training and briefings, but one always remained at the post on the grounds. James would often sit curled up next to Emily as she read, while Vicki would alternate between reading with Emily and doing homework or other reports with Matt, all while making sure the birds were well-fed and groomed.

Jack and Melody kept to themselves for a while, and they didn't see the two for the first couple days at all except for occasionally at mealtimes. Jack explained that they hadn't actually had time to be alone since their marriage, and they were doing an unofficial honeymoon to celebrate. But after the first week, they started to come around more, and they'd spend time playing cards or doing homework or gossiping.

Ramirez and Dr. T checked up on them every couple of days when their Principal came back to check the status of the enchantments around the school. Shailagh and Siyon joined them a couple of times, too, and they received updates on what the two were doing back at Lady Shandra's.

"Honestly, after the scare with the murder, we haven't done much in the way of direct snooping," admitted Shailagh. "Lady Shandra has assumed all control in that regard, and she hasn't informed us of any progress thus far."

"But we've still been incredibly busy, including with our own lessons," said Siyon. "Apart from continued investigations in the schools, aura-sensing, and other types of Artifact Conjunction with people of interest, we've also started to try and grasp that Modern Magic you've been working on."

"How much luck have you had?" asked Matt.

"A fair bit," said Shailagh. "But Seers are used to thinking outside the box. Granted, most of our successes have been in the form of further studies in Divination; we've been unable to replicate the kinds of things you and Emily did last year at Hogwarts."

"In a way, I think that's probably par for the course," said Matt. "It seems like whenever we've activated it, it's been stuff we've done on our own… and the effects are different."

"Oh, right," said Emily. "We didn't tell you what happened during our exam, did we?"

Shailagh and Siyon listened to them recount their moments of Modern Magic and the premonitions that they'd received. The psychics grinned widely as Matt recounted the part about blowing the wall-leaping kid out of the sky, and Emily's jump-kick off the wall was astounding to them as well.

"Have you been able to do it since then?" asked Shailagh.

"No… I think it has something to do with having a heightened emotion situation," said Emily. "Unless we've got our adrenaline pounding, it's much harder to do it."

"That makes sense, actually," said Siyon.

"Yes," said Shailagh. "Having heightened emotions can, in fact, result in a more potent level of primal magic energy. Students who start at our school are purposely stressed to the point of near-insanity by our professors and older classmates in an effort to not only ensure only the strongest remain, but to ensure one reaches their magical potential as quickly as possible."

"That seems… barbaric, really," said Matt.

"But effective. It's why we're able to do what we do," said Shailagh. "Tonight, we should meditate more, I think. Lady Shandra is calling the Top Five back before the new year because she has further things she wants us to investigate, but we can get a little more out of this break I think…"

That night, Ramirez also joined them for the nightly meditation, having elected to spend a night at the school with his friends. They felt the icy pressure from Siyon's projection and the restrained fire of Shailagh flowing over them, but they couldn't seem to bring themselves to push theirs back out. After about fifteen minutes of it, they ended the meditation session.

"That was wicked," said Ramirez. "I could feel the two of you for sure… I feel like I might have felt one of you others but I'm not sure."

"Probably just felt the other two pushing against each other," said Matt, feeling especially put out. "I know we can do it on our own…"

"Well, yeah, of course you can't stand up to us," said Shailagh, smirking. "Remember when we did it back during the semester? Lyle, who has been doing this for a bit longer than you, can barely stand against the combination of the Top Five and Lady Shandra. If you guys can manage it before March, I'll be surprised."

"Though, actually, it's not even totally necessary for you to do it," said Siyon. "Unless it's something you want to perfect in regards to your spells on Modern Magic. This is just an exercise to help you expand beyond your boundaries."

"True," said Shailagh. "Uh… also, Ramirez, if you could keep this all quiet, I'd be most appreciative."

"Whatever," said Ramirez, shrugging. "Whenever y'all are ready to tell me."

Christmas was surprisingly uneventful. They had a small feast with Jack, Melody, and their bodyguards and they opened presents, of course, but beyond that it was another lazy day of lounging and not caring about really anything. There had been a snowfall the night before, so they were able to have another white Christmas. They sipped hot cocoa outside the Astronomy classroom, watching the starts twinkle overhead, jars of bluebell flames surrounding them and keeping them warm and toasty. It was completely tranquil, looking across the grounds to the ocean lapping the frozen beach.

It was also a complete 180 from the next morning, when they awoke to a Caterwauling Charm's horrible screech, as they felt their dorms locking down as something metallic slid over their windows, plunging them into near-darkness.

Matt rolled out of bed, catching his panicked hummingbird as it began to rocket around the room. He grabbed his wand and pulled on his robe, making sure the Arcadian wand was still tucked away in the second pocket. He was unsurprised to see that his door was slammed shut. To be safe, he ran to his dresser, ripped out their Abjuration book, and opened to the chapter on defensive spells. He began to quickly run through a list of common enchantments, and his room glowed several different colors as the vapors of the spell disappeared into the walls.

Emily had already started rattling off a list of hexes and charms as she rolled under her bed for further protection. After a few moments of careful listening, she grabbed her robes and cloak, as well as letting Red Wing out of his cage with the expressed threat of harm if he didn't shut his beak and behave. The bird, for once in his life, was utterly silent, and merely glanced around, as if waiting for something to attack them so he could ruin it. Unfortunately, she couldn't go anywhere, so she, too, began to idly page through her Abjuration texts, setting up further enchantments to the room.

After about half an hour, Matt heard a knock on the door. He put his ear to it and heard James' voice. He couldn't hear what he was saying clearly, but he had a feeling that James was trying to get in. Still, he didn't trust anything, and kept his wand at the ready as the locks and barriers against his door were disengaged. The wall finally melted away and, sure enough, there was James, who looked momentarily shocked, and then he smiled.

"Got some enchantments of your own, huh? Don't worry, Matt, I promise it's me. I've been in contact with Dr. T and the A.W.A. We're going to move you to the central building for safe-keeping."

Matt lowered his wand and glanced around. He knew that was the drill; it had been told to everyone at the school during one of several campus security meetings. Plus, he was sure that there were enough hexes and curses in place in the dorms that if he wasn't who he said he was, he wouldn't have made it that far. Matt began to cancel the enchantments he'd put up around the room.

"Very well done, I must admit," said James. "It looked like you weren't in here at all."

"I'm glad you didn't just come barging in," said Matt. "I'm pretty sure I had that one that would have instantly electrocuted you."

"You think they didn't teach us how to deal with that in Auror training?" asked James, smirking. "Very cute. Anyway, grab your necessities. We're moving in five minutes in tandem with the girls. Prepare to spend the night; it's crazy out there."

"What exactly happened?" asked Emily when Vicki melted her door and began to disenchant Emily's handiwork.

"Nobody's told me much, other than we need to get you all to safety. I've got Melody and Jack waiting downstairs; they're pissed about being up so early," said Vicki.

"Can't say I'm too excited about it," replied Emily, who could feel her heartbeat returning to normal finally. "Hope they give you more information when we get over there…"

"I doubt it," said Vicki, rolling her eyes. "We're just bodyguards. They rarely see fit to tell us any details other than, 'hey don't let your charges die, okay?'"

When the dorm doors opened, they were surprised to see about two dozen witches and wizards spread out among the grounds, each dressed in black cloaks and muttering under their breath as parchments and quills flew next to them. They held their wands aloft, some measuring currents and areas, while others seemed to be increasing the protections on the school itself.

"Come on," said James, leading Matt along.

They sprinted to the central building, but none of the other witches and wizards paid them any attention. Once they made it inside, gasping, they were lead to the cafeteria, where they were immediately presented with cups of steaming hot chocolate, obviously infused with some sort of calming agent. By that point, however, it was pretty unnecessary; they'd all pretty much calmed down from the initial shock.

"Are you all okay?" came the voice of Dr. T.

She came rushing in, her cloak unfastened and sweeping along behind her as she ran. She looked legitimately concerned; her face was completely absent of any of her usual laughter. Ramirez and her husband weren't far behind, both still keeping their wands out as they ran to the group. Everything was sort of going in a blur; they still had no idea what was going on.

"Someone… or something, rather, trespassed on the school," said Mr. T. "So it all… locked down… alarms off…"

"But who or whatever it is already left," said one of the other Aurors in the area.

"Are you sure it wasn't just like… a dog or something?" asked Emily.

"No. The charms are very specific. They won't trigger unless it's something that should cause concern," replied Vicki.

"Otherwise they'd go off whenever any old animal walked through it," said James.

"We're going to keep investigating around the school, so we need you to stay here for now," said yet another of the new Aurors. "Johnson, Lanzara, come with me."

They were left with the Tavoularius family as they waited in the cafeteria. Dr. T took over a nearby fireplace and began to contact her fellow professors. Matt and Emily wandered around to the windows. The only other people on campus at the time were an old couple who worked as the groundskeepers and one solitary chef, who conjured up his food and continued to work in a corner of the room, assisted by several small and twitchy house elves.

"You don't think… the McGuires…" Matt suggested, after they'd been locked down for over two hours.

"We can't rule it out…" said Emily, quietly. "But what are the odds they picked the right school..?"

"It's not necessarily any certain person," said Ramirez, surprising the other two. "It could just be an unauthorized person who triggered the alarm. It wouldn't be the first time."

The search took nearly all day. By dinner, half the staff had returned and entered a very serious conversation with Dr. T. about campus security and the other issues they were facing. The stony faces of the other staff, partly from having their holiday interrupted and partly over their concerns for the safety of their students, told them that things were probably going to be drastically different in the coming months.

"You all will, of course, be coming to our house for the evening," said Dr. T. "I've asked the Aurors to escort you to your dormitories to collect any belongings and schoolwork you might want to take with you."

They took the hint and loaded their bags up with books and parchment when they were finally allowed to return to their bedrooms. Then it was a quick escort back to the cafeteria and a Floo ride to the Tavoularius household. They were only slightly surprised to see Shailagh and Siyon waiting for them there, grim expressions on their faces.

"Although we knew nothing bad had happened to you… it was a shock," said Shailagh. "We… none of us… foresaw this."

"Nothing really happened, it seems to have been more of a scare than anything," said Emily, shrugging.

"Besides, if you didn't see it beforehand, you probably weren't supposed to see it anyway," said Jack, patting his sister on the head. "Don't stress yourself out."

"That's what I have stated, numerous times," said Siyon. "Though it is late for us to try and See, and we will not have access to the area until too much contamination makes it useless."

"And I cannot contact Judith for an aura sensing session," said Shailagh, bad-temperedly. "It's like it's conspiring against us…"

"It probably is," said Emily. "Nothing you can do about it now… just let it go, all right?"

Dr. T went back to Seaside and didn't return until later that night. Lyle had accompanied her, and they seemed to be right in the middle of a very heated conversation. They continued through the house without saying a word to any of the teens sitting in the living room, and they heard a distant door slam that indicated they'd barricaded themselves in her study.

About an hour later, they emerged, neither looking particularly happy. Lyle gave them a quick greeting, but headed through the fireplace and, most likely, to his house. There was an uneasy silence for about a minute before Dr. T finally entered the room, massaging her forehead. She waved her wand at the liquor cabinet in the far corner, and a few bottles were quickly emptied into a tumblr, which spun around and gave off a particularly blue smoke.

"Matt, Emily, can I please see you in my quarters?" she asked, her voice tired and haggard.

"Absolutely," said Emily, and she and Matt hurried to meet with her.

They hadn't seen Dr. T's home office before, but it was pretty much what they expected. A large wooden desk neatly filed, an entire wall lined with books, and several comfy chairs facing said desk. Behind her was an enormous window that looked back over the rolling hills outside their home. The sky was wintry and grey; whatever snow they'd had at Seaside hadn't made it to the Tavoularius household, wherever it was.

"Lyle and I have had a… talk," said Dr. T, after she took a long swig of her drink.

"Looked like more than a talk," Matt muttered.

"You'd be right about that," said Dr. T. "Damned if that man isn't persistent… and stellar at justifications."

"What did you need to ask us about? Is everything okay at Seaside?" asked Emily.

"Don't stress about that," she replied, smiling. "I'm not about to tell you that you have to leave Seaside and go into hiding or anything. Nothing that drastic, at least not yet."

"Not yet? Is that… a possible future option?" asked Matt.

"No. Leastwise, I don't think so," replied Dr. T. "Unless the McGuires are specifically spotted, which they haven't been yet, then we'll revisit it again. No, this has something else to do entirely with your situation."

"Since Lyle was here, I'm guessing it has to do with Modern Magic, right?" asked Emily.

"Correct," said Dr. T. "Lyle has suggested, and I grudgingly agree with him, that we should introduce the concept to some of the other students at Seaside. A small group would be perfect."

"Oh!" Matt exclaimed, excited by the thought. "Then we can all use it to try and fight in case the McGuires show up, right?"

"That's the theory, anyway," said Dr. T, sighing heavily. "I must admit, I wasn't really kosher with the idea at first; I don't want to put my students in unnecessary danger. But Lyle made some very valid points about the opportunity for research, and the fact that if the McGuires are, in fact, learning how to manipulate magic in experimental ways such as this, it might be good to have reinforcements who can combat them, in case they find a way to fight traditional spells that we don't understand."

"… okay, then, who are we gonna tell?" asked Emily.

"We have to be careful about it because, if we're being absolutely technical with the law's definition, we're technically doing something illegal by allowing Lyle to teach you this magic," said Dr. T. "The A.W.A. has incredibly strict control over experimental magic, and we haven't received clearance or authorization to perform any magic like this."

"So the inner circle only, then?" suggested Matt.

"Yes. My children, Katrina, and Jack and Melody for sure. I suppose it wouldn't hurt to induct the Yakakos and Miss Sicily, too, since I don't think it'll be a problem for them," said Dr. T.

"In that case, we have to tell them everything that's going on," said Matt.

"Yeah, we don't want to leave them blind to the situation, in case something happens," said Emily.

"Exactly," said Dr. T. "Again, I hate the thought of sending you all into trouble… in a perfect world, I'd handle the whole experimental-modern-magic thing, but I simply don't have enough time between teaching and my administrative duties… so it's up to you all, at least until the summer."

"Let's… start telling everyone, then," said Matt. "Might as well do it sooner rather than later, right?" said Matt.

"All right. Bring everyone else in," said Dr. T.

Telling the Tavoularius and Hacker family members was incredibly smooth. Shailagh and Siyon had apparently already leaked major details to Ramriez and Xavier, respectively, and Jack and Melody had already started to get a pretty good picture based on their previous knowledge at Hogwarts. James and Vicki were happy to finally get the whole story; they'd known the least about the entire situation, ironically.

"So basically we're going to start doing experimental magic and fighting wizard terrorism?" said Xavier, rubbing his hands together excitedly. "Hell yes. When do we start?"

"Soon as we get back, I'm afraid," said Dr. T. "And I don't think I need to remind you all that this will be done with utmost secrecy, correct?"

"Yes," said Shailagh. "We can't afford to have the media discover the truth, and certainly not the A.W.A. There's already been a couple of bad stories about Lyle over the years; he's something of a pariah in some circles already, and his Summoning class is already skirting the experimental clause lines…"

"I never thought the A.W.A. would be more invasive than the Ministry of Magic was, but I was wrong," said Matt.

"Almost makes you miss Fudge, huh?" suggested Jack, teasingly.

"… I don't even know our A.W.A. President," said Emily, suddenly. "Oops."

"You really should pay more attention in Theory," said Vicki, rolling her eyes and smiling.

"Mom, is there anything else you need from us?" asked Ramirez.

"No, you're all free to go," said Dr. T. "As per usual, please don't destroy the house, if you can manage it."

Winter Break passed quickly after that. Katrina visited a bit further into the month, and they briefed her on the situation. She wasn't surprised.

"I knew something big was up, and Mom and Dad have been acting very… secretive around me," she said. "So I knew the two of you would be in big trouble if things got out of hand. And I think there might be some issues in the future, too."

"What do you mean?" asked Emily.

"I'm not able to say just yet... Mom and Dad haven't said anything, but I have a feeling it's going to be a major change," she said. "The moment I know anything, I'll tell you."

"But no matter what does happen, we're going to help you guys until the end of it," said Ramirez.

"Yeah, nobody's gonna mess with you unless they go through me first," said Jack.

"Thank you guys," said Matt, grinning. "With you, plus James and Vicki, there's no way they're gonna win."

"Don't get complacent. We're good, yes, but perhaps not as good as you're thinking," said Vicki.

"Aw, c'mon Vicki have a little faith!" James said, patting her on the shoulder. "We ain't gonna just roll over and die while there's fighting."

"Plus, you can't say you're not somewhat excited to have a guaranteed showdown in your future," said Shailagh, smirking at Vicki.

"… yeah maybe," replied Vicki, also smiling slightly.

The remainder of their winter break passed quickly, and it wasn't long before it was the night before their return to Seaside. Matt and Emily had begun to try and teach their friends to utilize the Modern Magic. However, having been unable to replicate it fully themselves since their time in their Dueling exam, they had very little luck. Undaunted, the new members of the group instead began to practice the Top Five style of meditation, as Shailagh said it would help increase their spirit for all magic, especially the experimental stuff. They finished their homework at the last minute, as per usual, and finally returned to Seaside on the morning before term, anxious for exam scores and whatever new security measures would be implemented.

**Author's Note:**

**The story will continue. Please check my profile for a tentative timeline of updates. There may be more frequent ones, but my job makes it difficult to predict when I'll have time to write and not.**


	10. Chapter 10

**Author's Note:**

**Only a couple of days late with this one. Now starts the second term... which means the story is building towards its climax.**

Chapter Ten: Arrival, Departure

Their first week back to classes was much calmer and more of a relief than they'd expected. Seaside withheld grades until the last classes let out on Friday evening (much to the agony and rage of the students), but professor still spent the week reviewing areas of the tests that were overall poorly performed on, while praising their classes on areas that went smoothly. By the time they received their results after dinner on Friday, Lillian and Mat looked like they were going to pass out from anticipation and fear.

"Everyone got their results?" asked Ramriez, as he joined their table at dinner.

"Can we please open them and stop this nonsense game?" asked Teruhiko.

"Hey, don't hate… this could be our last chance doing this in our entire schooling careers!" said Matt.

"I'm opening mine, this is ridiculous…" Nayoko, said tearing into hers.

They read through their letters and were incredibly shocked to see that the grades had been graded on the O.W.L. scale they'd had at Hogwarts. Ramirez had mentioned that they were considering a grading scale overhaul, but nobody had expected them to have it done that quickly. Although it perplexed the Seasiders at first, they were nice enough to give an ESCABUF scale that showed what the old test scores would have been.

"My overall average was an E," said Matt. "But… I did get O's in Abjuration, Transmutation, Elemental, Theory, Zoology, Summoning, and Divination, by some miracle. I think it was like an 87.01%."

"Holy shit, I got eight O's!" Emily exclaimed, eyes wide. "Abjuration, Charming, Dueling, Elemental, Healing, which can't be right, Zoology, Potions… and E's in Astronomy, Summoning, and Transmutation. I only failed Theory, to no one's astonishment I'm sure…"

"Damn," Matt muttered. "You killed me this term…"

"Well you're also taking 13 classes so you kind of brought it on yourself," replied Emily.

"True… oh, sorry, how'd you all do?" Matt asked, realizing they'd been dominating the conversation.

"89% average, 7 E… or, rather, O's I guess they're called now," said Ramirez. "But I did almost fail Ancient Runes… Mom's gonna be unhappy about that…"

"Don't worry, I almost failed Theory…" Katrina said, sounding furious with herself. "I totally blanked on the test; you'd think that would be my specialty!"

"But you got 7 O's, too," said Teruhiko, stealing her paper from her. "Hell you got an O in freaking AP Healing and Transmutation, among others. Quit your bitching."

"Did you at least pass everything, Teruhiko?" asked an irritated Nayoko as she examined her paper closely.

"One more point and I would have failed Theory," said Teruhiko. "But check it out: O's in Dueling and Abjuration. Hell yeah!"

"My average was a 87.62%" said Toshio, after he finished double-checking his averages. "I totally got bonus points on Muggle Studies, though, so that helped."

"How'd you do, Lillian?" asked Matt, looking at the shaking girl.

"I… I got 8 O's…" she said, faintly. "B-But I failed Transmigration… so… my average fell… and I only got a passing grade in Summoning… and Divination… by one point…"

"That's pretty good, though!" Melody said. "See, you even got 7 bonus grade points in Charming! That's really good!"

"I-I know… but…" said Lillian, still clearly upset about the failures.

"Don't sweat it," said Jack, sadly. "My average is only like a 78."

"How the hell did that happen?" exclaimed Emily.

"I failed Summong. Bad. Like we're talking a T or an F or whatever you wanna call lit on the grading scale," said Jack, pointing to the 44% in the column.

"Hey wait a minute… you and Vicki have been awful quiet, James," said Katrina suddenly. "Let's see em."

"Now, before you look," said Vicki, evasively. "Remember we did graduate early and we've been training and-."

"Gimme!" said Emily, snatching James' from his hands (he didn't fight her) while Teruhiko took Vicki's.

"That fucking figures," said Teruhiko, wrinkling his nose. "A 93.75% average and you 9 O's… not to mention the rest were straight up E's."

"What?" roared Nayoko. "You beat me?"

"Damn, you beat me a little bit, too," said James. "I only got a 93.58. But I had 10 O's so if that gay-ass Elemental Class hadn't brought me down…"

"You two?" shrieked Nayoko, easily eclipsing Lillian's level of distress in five seconds. She stormed away, and Lillian chased after her, carrying her books a few seconds later.

"Way to go, guys, you really set her off now," said Melody.

"Eh she'll get over it," said Teruhiko. "She's used to being top of the class, so just give her some time to chill out…"

"Oh, yeah, actually, while we're here, we've got something to tell you," said Matt. "I guess we'll have to tell Lillian and Nayoko tomorrow…"

Teruhiko and Toshio were both incredibly excited about the prospect of fighting dark wizards, though they had to nix Teruhiko's idea of recruiting Mike and the other guys from Dueling to fight with them. Over the weekend, they found and informed Nayoko and Lillian about it, too. Though the girls were much more leery about the whole idea (Lillian for fear of Lord Voldemort and Nayoko for fear of upsetting the A.W.A. before she could get a job), they agreed to offer their support in any way that they could.

When Matt and Emily showed up with a half-dozen new students for Lyle during his first scheduled meeting with them, he got so excited that they thought he literally might explode. He flew around the room, replastering his complicated diagrams and essays and books as the bemused newbies watched in slightly horror.

"It's so crazy because I was just thinking I might petition the A.W.A. to start experimental lessons on this whole thing!" said Lyle, eyes shining with excitement. "But of course that would be utterly ridiculous because they've made it clear that they are not a fan of me, nor my methods, so probably best to leave that one alone…"

"Uh, Professor, while you're doing that, do you mind if we train?" asked Matt.

"Sure go ahead!" said Lyle, conjuring up small packets for the new people to study. "I'll be over here lecturing."

They spent the evening in the far corner of the Summoning classroom, trying to practice their spells. Sadly, there was very little in the way of progress. Neither of them could perform even the basic stuff they'd done during the Dueling exam, much less the feats of magic they'd pulled off the previous year at Hogwarts. Meanwhile, Lyle's confusing lectures filled the room, and they'd occasionally glance over at their classmates. Teruhiko's eyes were glossed over for the most part, and Jack, Melody, Xavier, and James all showed signs of attention span failure about half an hour in as well. But Nayoko, Lillian, and especially Toshio were really into it, even stopping to ask questions a little while in.

"I think it's because a lot of it has to do with stuff like Arithmancy," said Toshio. "If you can manipulate even certain variables and frequencies, you might be able to really alter the effects of even current spells."

"That might explain why we're so poor at it," Matt said. "Math. Figures."

"Yeah, we haven't taken a day of Arithmancy in our lives," added Emily.

"Your loss," said Nayoko. "It all sounds great in theory, but it seems like there are far too many unpredictable variables to make it a sure science. I highly doubt just anyone could pull it off."

"Well if Matt and Emily could, there's no reason we can't," said Teruhiko. "… Er… no offense meant with that, guys."

"Nah, it's to be expected from Emily, she's pretty amazing," said James, throwing his arm around her. She'd long since stopped fighting him off. "And one of our things in training was some magic improvisation, so who knows Vicki and I might be good at it too."

"I'll give it some thought," said Vicki, shrugging. "It's just one more thing to add to our plate with the work and bodyguard duties, after all."

Just ahead, Lillian and Katrina were deep in conversation about some theory or chart they'd seen. Lillian even made a copy of it so she could make notes and such on it as time went on. It was great to see here in such high spirits again; it was as if the prospect of doing something so new and exciting knocked the memory of her tests right out of her head.

So January wore on, but they weren't able to get another private lesson with Lyle for the remainder of the month, and he even cancelled Summoning twice because he'd started going on trips that would last days at a time. With the interest his Summoning class was getting, not to mention his private work with Modern Magic, he'd started getting requests for interviews by the bucket load, and he often met with colleagues and others who shared his crazy interests.

But, by the third week with still no actual progress in actually using their modern magic, Matt, Emily, Ramirez, and Katrina found themselves called to Dr. T's office, as always with James and Vicki accompanying them. They wondered what they could possibly have done this time. When they entered the office and saw not only Dr. T but also Lady Shandra, Lyle, and Assistant Principal Damascus Elliot, they were certain they were in trouble somehow.

"Don't worry, you're not in trouble," said Dr. T, immediately upon them entering. "But we do have some serious matter to discuss here."

"Did you find a lead?" asked Matt, excitedly looking between Lyle and Lady Shandra.

"Calm yourself; we are diligently endeavoring to divine your answers, but that is not the reason for my presence," said Lady Shandra. "I shall send Shailagh with a full report next week."

"What's up?" asked James, perching on the shoulder of Emily's chair.

"It seems Seaside will add another student to its ranks," said Dr. T. There was a knock at the door and she waved her wand. In walked Dr. Isemann, who was chatting with a smaller figure.

"… Uh… and… who is this…?" asked Emily.

The girl who stood before them couldn't have been a teenager just yet, or just barely was. She reminded them a lot of the Yakakos, and couldn't help wondering if t was a relative. She had long, straight black hair and a willowy, fragile-looking frame. The girl demurely looked at them, and then back at her feet; she was clearly embarrassed to be in front of them.

"May I present to you the brilliant Natsuki Miyamoto!" exclaimed Lyle, hopping off the desk to greet her. "She has been a pupil of a very bright witch I know in Japan, and, despite only being twelve, she's enrolling at Seaside a few years early."

"It's great to meet you, Natsuki," Matt said. "But… umm… I still don't… understand why you need us?"

"We're clear, Josephine," said Lady Shandra. "I sense no evil or unwanted presences."

"Nor I, Dr. Tavoularius," said Damascus, glancing around the room. "We seem to be secure."

"Very well," said Dr. T., standing. "I must say, Lyle, Yuko outdid herself on this girl. I wouldn't know just from looking at her, not in my wildest dreams."

"It's true," said Lyle, grinning. "Matt, Emily, apologies for the slight deceiving we just put you through… but this is not really Natsuki Miyamoto."

The girl looked up at them, and her entire demeanor had shifted. She stood straighter, and there was a stronger glint in her eyes. She didn't say anything, but smiled—almost guiltily—at her new classmates. Still confused, neither Emily nor Matt could figure out who she was supposed to be.

"You know her better as one Sharolyn McGuire, daughter of your current arch-nemesis, as it were," said Lyle, grinning.

They gasped. Now they could see it. The girl who had for so long hidden at Hogwarts in plain sight in the guise of a First Year Rebecca Gibbons, only to be revealed at the end of the year as the sister/daughter of their enemies… thinking back on it, she'd mentioned that another mutual friend of theirs might one day get a pen pal from Tokyo.

"I'm sorry to, once again, have to deceive you with my appearance," she said. "Please forgive me."

"No, no it's fine," said Emily. "Glad to know you're still safe."

"Same to you. I wish my family would stop causing trouble for you…" said Natsuki/Sharolyn.

"Don't beat yourself up over it," said Dr. T. "We've actually received intelligence that states that the threat has grown exponentially. Don't worry, Matt and Emily, I don't mean just for you for a change, though… frankly… you are kind of the center of focus."

"Howso?" asked Matt.

"Well, again," said Dr. T., shifting uncomfortably. "Shailagh will have a full run-down later next week, but, suffice to say… the media got ahold of your names. We're not sure who or how or why, but… yeah. They know who you are, and the fact that you are expected to have brought the trouble here."

"Wait a minute… so… doesn't that mean that they know where we are?" asked Emily.

"I don't think so. Pretty sure the gag order stopped them from publishing that," said Dr. T. "Anyway, I just wanted to make sure you were aware, and of course of Sharolyn's arrival…"

She trailed off. They could sense that Dr. T. wasn't all that comfortable with having yet another fugitive under her roof, but Lady Shandra's quick glance to her told them that they'd already discussed it at length. After a few more minutes of catching up with Sharolyn, they were returned to their rooms to prepare for dinner.

Another agonizing week of classes and anticipation followed. Sharolyn joined the freshman classes but her appearance was otherwise ignored, other than the rumor of the young grade-skipper. She quickly found herself in a group of girls in her class, although Ramirez made a show of inviting her over to their table occasionally, in no uncertain terms that the Principal's son was watching out for her.

"How do you like it here, Natsuki?" asked Lillian, kindly.

"It's very nice," said the girl, bowing, back to her reserved nature. "It is a challenge, but I expect I will excel, given time."

"Also, Mom said she's shown enough promise with her private instructor back in Japan that Lyle's accepted her into our Modern Magic lessons," said Ramirez, grinning. "She's quite smart."

"Indeed," said Nayoko, idly flipping through the pages of her Arithmancy. "Well… if you ever need help with anything, I will be happy to assist, provided it doesn't interfere with my coursework."

"Oh I wouldn't dream of troubling you!" said Natsuki. "But I don't believe that time will come; I am rarely challenged by anything and I think my grades on my make-up mid-terms prove that…"

She'd taken 2nd in her entire class, a fact that was painfully obvious to now-4th Nayoko. The others couldn't help but chuckle quietly at Nayoko's expense. Meanwhile, Ramirez, Katrina, Matt, and Emily would occasionally break off from the group and make sure that Natsuki was really adjusting well. The young girl admitted that she was actually enjoying the chance to completely reinvent herself again.

When Shailagh arrived, solo for once and looking exhausted, they promptly skipped their afternoon lessons and hid out in Matt's room. They re-introduced her to Natsuki/Sharolyn before the others arrived, and once Ramirez, Katrina, Jack, Melody, Teruhiko, Toshio, James, Vicki, and even a nervous Lillian had arrived and crammed into the dorm, Shailagh brought them up to speed.

"It's been an exhausting few weeks. I wish I could say our efforts have paid off and we've cracked the case, but it's just not that simple," said Shailagh, rubbing her eyes as Ramirez massaged her shoulders. "But we do some things, and none of them are good.

"Without a doubt, we know there are spies in the United States now, and they're looking for you two. But we knew that already. The confirmation just solidifies our fears. What you may not have known, however, is that the operation is much larger than that. It's not just you two anymore; anyone who has left England is being sought out, and there are spies worldwide. Some of their own free will, some under the Imperius curse, but they're everywhere."

"So when they say everyone… does that mean us too?" asked Melody.

"Yes," said Shailagh, nodding. "Basically, if you've left the country abruptly within the past eight or nine months, you're a suspect. And if you're connected to anyone whose left in that time, you're probably under surveillance… on both sides."

"I did hear rumors that we were deploying more body guards and such," said Vicki. "I thought it might have been unrelated, though."

"No, I'm afraid it's because of this," said Shailagh. "One real stroke of luck is one of our students got an academic medal awarded to him from a high-ranking official, so Siyon has been basically monitoring that thing day in and day out for weeks, so she's seen a lot of things in that regard."

"I… hate to be the one to ask this, but… has anything… happened…?" asked Matt.

"No. No disappearances or murders to speak of that couldn't be tied back to something unrelated," said Shailagh. "Of course… that's only with documented refuges, which are all still hush-hush among even the government. There's a media blackout plan in progress in case the story breaks, which it has in some ways. So far, you two are the only named people…"

"We've been trying to figure out which publication got them," said Katrina. "But I can't figure it out…"

"It wasn't a nationally-distributed one," said Shailagh. "It was some rag from the Salem-area, which has since had its license revoked. But it infuriated a few of the families. Luckily, they weren't able to determine where you were born, so your families are safe. They know you're enrolled in school somewhere in the USA, but they're not certain where."

"Well they know it's not Salem," said Matt. "We'd get lynched. So that's gotta narrow it down somewhat…"

"Yeah… all I'm saying is to be careful when you go out. Though there are many spies and rumors all flying through the air, you two are still the only ones with the McGuires after you. So you're still in the most danger," said Shailagh. "Sadly, I must also leave tonight, because we're so busy. Also… … actually, nevermind, you'll find out soon enough. Have a pleasant evening."

They were silent after she and Ramirez left. Nobody said anything for a long time. Their faces remained screwed up in concentration as they digested all of the information. Finally, Katrina excused herself for the evening and brought everyone out of their reveries, which sent them packing to their own rooms to start on homework or something else to calm their nerves.

As often happened with the time after Shailagh's visits, everyone was on high-alert for a few days, expecting at any moment for a sea of Death Eaters to swarm over Seaside, or for some big news outlet to get a big break with the names and pictures of Matt and Emily. Thankfully, nothing of the sort happened, and as the final few days of January arrived, their lives returned to whatever the closest thing to normalcy they could figure out was.

One night, when they all agreed to meet to finish their work, the entire group sat in one of the study lounges. Only Katrina was missing. As the serious students worked hard on their essays, muttering suggestions and thoughts on the finer principals of some complicated Transmigrative principal, Matt, Emily, Ramirez, Teruhiko, and James sat a bit apart, discussing the coming months.

"Well, assuming we all don't get murdered first," joked Teruhiko. "There's a Garth's Hallow trip coming up next month, and then at the beginning of May we've got the Decathlon. You guys in?"

"I'll think about it," said Matt. "When's the deadline?"

"Well only two teams per school get to go, but it's at the end of February," said Ramirez. "Only Seniors really get to partake in it, and it's always based on GPA and occasionally some sort of qualifying round."

"But rumor has it some schools are boycotting it this year due to safety concerns," said James. "Pretty sure Vicki's school ain't going and you know those pricks in Salem won't either."

"Don't we also have some sort of Career planning meeting coming up?" asked Matt. "Laurenzi and Ching have both been harping about that in class…"

"Yeah, I think at the end of April… like right after Spring Break," said Teruhiko. "Your Advisor will meet with you and Dr. T. and—."

"Whose our advisor?" asked Emily.

"Fuck if I know. Ask Dr. T.," said Teruhiko.

"Usually people only talk to their advisors for stuff like future class selection and maybe if they're having a problem with something on the school grounds… I guess it's no surprise you don't know your advisors," said Ramirez. "I'll have Mom tell you next time we get a free moment."

They were interrupted by the arrival of Katrina. They started to greet her normally, but trailed off when they saw that she was carrying her owl cage and had a huge bag slung over her shoulder. Behind her, her trunk levitated lazily.

"Hey. There's something I need to tell you all," she said. "Mom and Dad got transferred to England. We're leaving tonight."

"What?" cried the group in surprise, making the entire nearby library turn in surprise.

Once they were out in the halls, Katrina was able to explain in detail what was going on.

"You remember how Shailagh told us that there were spies everywhere in the USA, right?" she said. "Well… although there's been no formal declaration of war or any sort of publicly-known attack, we can't just openly declare that we're sending wizards into England to monitor them. And the A.W.A. doesn't want to cause more panic than there was when Salem got attacked. So a lot of people in Mom's division have been sent abroad to be implanted in the areas of risk and concern… mostly the British Isles."

"But… why are you going with them?" asked Ramirez.

"In case we're found out," said Katrina. "We were chosen because we're a pure blood line all the way through, and there's no way they can trace Mom or Dad back to the A.W.A. Worst case scenario, we're recruited into the inner circle of the Death Eaters, and we bide our time until I can escape with Kirin. But we don't plan to be caught."

"So wait… you and your whole family are going? That seems reckless," said Vicki. "Didn't… didn't they have any other way?"

"Unfortunately, no," said Katrina, sighing. "But the plan, and of course you can't tell anyone this… our plan is to actually make contact with a certain family that's in hiding, and live with them underground and pass information back to our government. Officially, it's to help people displaced reconnect and to assemble a list of confirmed missing and dead… unofficially, we're taking down that regime of the moment presents itself."

"A-are you sure that's… safe…?" asked Lillian, faintly. "It seems like you could get in a lot of trouble…"

"We'll be fine," said Katrina. "If the absolute worst-case scenario occurs and our cover is blown, they won't harm us because even if we're abroad, we're on A.W.A. business, and they can't risk harming any one of us without sparking total retaliation by the government."

"So… this is it, then?" asked Teruhiko, looking, for the first time they could ever remember it, crushed and scared.

"I suppose so," said Katrina. "So… I wish you all the best of luck. Please be careful. I'll do what I can from the other side, including continuing that practice with Modern Magic."

They exchanged hugs and followed her outside. Downstairs, Mr. Sanders was waiting for her, chatting with serious-faced Dr. T. and some of her other staff members. He waved cheerfully at Katrina's entourage as they arrived, until he put his arm around his daughter's shoulders, hoisted her heavy bag onto his back, and they walked out into the setting sun.

**Author's Note:**

**In case you didn't read any of my other stuff, I've recently started putting a schedule for updates up on my profile, which will tell you approximately when you'll be receiving updates on my work. This one is updated bi-weekly, alternating with Persona 6 –Mind Net- for those updates. Please have a look at that for my schedule. Thank you for reading!**


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